The Wanderer
by Sdhfs
Summary: The Brotherhood, Project Purity, hordes upon hordes of nasty green mutants that ravage from Germantown to the Jefferson, everything begins to unravel as the Enclave descends upon the wasteland in an unstoppable genocide. The Wanderer fights with the pride to save what remains of D.C, but it'll be a whole lot harder with old friends and enemies blocking their way.
1. Chapter 1

Boom!

* * *

In his onyx shaded holding room Alex had disassociated himself with everything around him until they came, caught staring aimlessly on the rickety bed they'd provided for him since the day before yesterday.

He'd barely moved then; stunned to a point of speechlessness, couldn't attempt to move now even as the door opened allowing the three expectant-imposing fatigued brothers inside to witness him being so pathetic.

"Just like Kodiak said, dead weight" one of them, he couldn't figure since the lack of gear said, only to be lightly ribbed by the one he knew, sentinel Lyons as their centre.

"You don't look healthy is what he means" Lyon offered in her strangely mild tone, securing him in the knowledge that he wasn't the only one who could smell the stink from under his unwashed fatigues. He'd looked in the mirror too sometime the night before as well, all he'd seen was a wrecked face covered in curling stubble and remnant dirt and filth.

"We'll need to get you cleaned up" the sentinel insisted after he just starred pathetically at her in return, "You can't go before the best of the brotherhood looking like a too well shelled waster."

Funny that was how he felt, not shaken handed or prone to fits of seizure or psychosis in that sense of PTSD, dulled and lame just like he'd seen in Ramona, whenever she hadn't been frantic and weird.

He couldn't argue; he was in the bowels of brotherhood power the citadel, the massive superstructure that predated the war but in the rare fashion of being a military installation. He could go on about his days after embarrassing himself in front of the command, shuffling off back to Megaton and joining Jericho in drinking away his horrors-maybe.

Except that man had real pains even; self-inflicted as they were. Thirty odd years on the raid, what had Alex had went through? A dead father; dead friends, betrayed by the rest, it paled in comparison to any waster aged beyond the ability to speak had went through, but here he was-getting soaked and scrubbed like an invalid by three people who'd been fighting a brutal rearguard war for as long as they'd been able.

"Don't worry kid, all you need to do is get through this meeting" he was promised by Colvin, one of the men he'd met in the GNR plaza, who'd helped strip him from the dusty coloured surplus fatigue's he'd worn for what smelt like days down into nothing but his underwear, who looked worriedly over to the sentinel.

That was the point he stopped them, "I'll do it myself" he had to say while backing off from them to a small washroom that had once been a utility cupboard, the room he was in was having the relative luxury of being singular and having its own small jury rigged facilities, "Just give me a minute" he insisted, he wasn't going to be nursed like an invalid, he was still alive! And he needed to remember that.

"Alright kid. Just remember that we only need you presentable, this isn't some fancy how to do up in the fort" Colvin joked, Alex didn't even fake a smile and instead went to the faucet, glad that he was shielded away from the two well maintained brothers and their captain 'brother' sentinel.

He had to present a remnant of what his father had fought for; project purity, he had to look like someone who'd trekked the wastes to find his father, not the slobbering babe who'd holed up in his room for two days because he couldn't handle it.

He felt like the babe, right now-since the moment he'd broke through the tunnel labyrinth to the security of the brotherhood lines, he couldn't eat where he'd been ravenous in the past weeks, couldn't drink an ounce of purified water that was as precious as the black oil had been in the former days.

Just how the hell was he meant to help convince the brotherhood to fight a newer; better equipped and elite enemy, right when they were yielding to the super mutant assault.

"_Why should they fight? What's so bad about the enclave, they asked for the code to the purifier-shot someone for it-but this is the wastelands. What's the difference between one military force shooting wastelanders and another?" He'd argued against Elder Lyons when he had taken him aside, two days ago that felt at least a month._

_The permanent press of the man's eyes had went knitted, fierce like a holo-shot of the pre-war snow leopard's he'd loved to flick through in 101's natural history records._

"_I don't like that accusation, but I'll forgive it because you've just lost your father" Lyon's had warned him in a tone as fierce as the paladin who'd cursed him and Gunney after they'd led a trio of super mutants against the monuments safety, before it softened slightly "The enclave will use your fathers work to undo everything we've been fighting for, everything my men have scarified for" _

_He'd seen the fanatic belief in the white stricken eyes then, the very same as his father's when they blazed for purity, "Help me save my work and your fathers dream boy, become the man."_

He'd regressed into a pitiful mess since then, didn't realise he'd stopped washing his face and underarms until Colvin came around the curve of the room to prod him again

"Are you fit?" He wasn't, his head ached and he felt soiled still, "Yes." He lied, knew he wouldn't get any better, James had always said it was better to get on half at your best to get back to it, Alex always preferred to bury himself in covers and beg Amata to bring him ice cream.

It was an age since those days; he'd probably shot or shot at as many people as he'd ever known in 101, the big green ulgie's included with everything else in the hellhole wastes.

He was given fresh fatigue's; from the brotherhoods own stock, the dullest grey he could imagine crossed with speckles of faint blues, "You've got your armour here haven't you?" Lyons asked him from the doorway, "Yeah, over in the corner" he'd left his gear in a pile in the farthest corner, a set of post-war body armour, coated green plates of fabricated metal that protected his vitals over the regular fatigues, chest; back, thighs and shins, forearms and a sort of roughly fashioned coif for his neck.

"Put it on. If you go into the meeting looking like you've got the crap kicked out of you then you'll be more attractive to the paladins" She advised. He'd definitely have the look, running through the tunnels had left him tripping and falling through the sewage and whatever gutting he'd done to the ghoul's that he'd crossed paths with.

Gunney had put in for the armour for him, left him sucking in a tight breath as he remembered sitting under the gratings of the memorial, hearing the black scaled bastards gloat over one of the targets-'The bulky yellow one' losing his arms to the socket from a plasma discharge.

He'd still be living and protecting merchants on the northern ring if Alex hadn't begged and cajoled him into heading for the DC ruins, dying armless in the Potomac, unable to swim or save himself.

His stomach lurched as he finished, his jaw morphing into a vice, who could he be madder with, the enclave or himself?

Colvin reminded him to sling his pistol into his underarm holster, the browning M2 pistol being the only weapon surviving his escape from the Jefferson memorial, "You look like a wastelander now kid. Too bad about the hair-far too bouncy" the bright faced man joked leaving him to shake his head, wanting to humour the man with smile but couldn't quite manage it, "Time to face the music, by god and brotherhood I hope its sweet" Colvin announced, while Alex preferred short and merciful.

Greying and faded; the innards of the brotherhoods powerbase was as dreary and depressing as any other place Alex had experienced in the wastelands, with the exception of being strict and monitored as opposed the organised chaos of Rivet city's leaky gangways. There was none of the heavy stomping of power armour in the hallways, but rather trim men and women hurrying for the most to and fro through the corridors and into a myriad of rooms, some he could see that were set up as classrooms while others held a more workroom element to them.

They were an institution for war and not much else he knew, and could see it in every member whether they were red robed and scientific, or a younger member, who all wore some fashion of laser pistol or conventional weapon, seemingly ready at all times to resist violence.

His father had told him that the brotherhood chiefly hunt down any piece of available technology that has military usage, in order to contest with the mutant scourge as they called it.

"Must not be much fun to be had around here" Alex deadpanned while they finished their reversal into the upper reaches of the vast complex, Colvin and the other man-who he reasoned to be Vargas smirked, "We have our fun out in the wastes gutting greenies" the sentinel replied easily but with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, up until she noticed his hands balling into fists.

Had he been breathing stubbornly again he wondered? She noticed immediately and asked her fellows to move on ahead, "Are you ready?" she asked, prompting him to wonder was she like her father or with him even in whatever schism they had fell under.

He suddenly felt bad at having been so aimless the past two days, he was walking in blind to this conference or whatever it was, a gathering of the higher echelon from the brotherhood. Lyon's had briefed him either, but what could he expect from a military man on politics save for half meant condemnations on men and women who'd fought and bled for him these last years.

"I don't know" he answered back pitifully, refusing to look her in the eye, you lot haven't even told me what's going on! He thought "What am I even doing here?" but said instead.

Lyon's narrowed her eyes if only slightly, before pushing out a patient breath, "I can't tell you much more than what you have been before" she insisted between her narrowing brow, "You're the only reliable survivor of the enclave attack, you're the person we have who knows best about what your fathers work was. You're the person who'll need to convince some of these bucketheads that it's in our best interests to fight the black masks"

"Oh right. And I'm meant to do that how?" he was being smart and she'd had enough practise with recruits to know it, she surprised him in the tight corridor on the bend to a second floor stairwell by shoving him not kindly into the thick wall behind.

Trained; wiry and well honed, sentinel Lyons by her look made him consider not even a second thought of attempting to pull himself free from her grip, facing her eye to eye only he saw the steely determination behind her eyes, realised he'd only be able to meet it with petulance.

"Listen to me" she ordered him tightly, her fists still full of his collars and shirt "My father told me the stories about this enclave bastards; I've known them since I was a child-but some of these men are so tired that their willing to throw everything he's worked for away just to gut the muties". she released him abruptly, "If you're not willing to help him fight the men who killed your father, then go back to your room and mope"

"I wasn't moping!" he snarled back with only enough control not to do what he wouldn't have considered a moment ago, enraged at her idea, "You try and lose your father-see how well you hold up"

The sentinel put her hands up, chocked her head and asked slowly "You're this angry for me even suggesting that you'd rather sit around and sob; rather than get the bastards who killed your father. And you're going to tell me that you don't want to?"

He suddenly felt sheepish, angry still but somewhat foolish, was he acting rationally? "I don't know what I'm meant to do. Why would anyone of the brotherhood care what I have to say?"

If she was unsure Lyon's didn't show it, "We're stuck in the same camps we've been five years ago, my father thinks your father could have turned the neutrals had he been here-doesn't think you could manage to do any less." It was as good a vote of confidence he'd ever received, not many had been forthcoming from any authority figure he'd even been in the midst off, "Can you really turn down the brotherhood of steels elder, I've seen you shoot kid" she baited him suddenly, an effort to diffuse the tension.

He realised that these people had taken him in all of a sudden, the room he really had moped in; the stolen scotch he'd sipped on, necked and then hurled against a wall had been their gift of the elder-something he'd initially taken as a cheap gesture of familiarity with his father.

That headache was back and he felt like an ass, the sentinel expectant before him should have maybe done more than just rebuke him, though he was thankful his shamelessness had overtaken the morbid thoughts that hid in every recess.

"I'm ready, I'll go and speak" he told her definitively, it'd take his mind off things and who knows, maybe he could get these bucketheads to fight the other blacker bucketheads, maybe even get a chance to kill one himself.

"Straight to the conference room then" she announced and led on, leaving him to follow her in her slight but empowering wake.

The room that held the debate was one of the larger rooms of the main floor that he could remember from some schematics he'd looked over in his pre-flight daze, side by side people to the number of thirty could have filled inside not a problem, the room itself boring and square at any estimation.

The sound inside bore his mind to other estimations however, as there was a clamour inside akin to the worst of the 101 committee disputes before the overseer had done away with them early on in his living there, he shared a look with the sentinel as they approached Vargas and Colvin.

"That's my father's voice alright" Lyon's pointed out Alex rightly thought didn't need to be, he'd heard enough of the man's calm through steely tones to know his voice, never had heard it so loud and commanding, shouting down unruly paladins which was clear even through the narrow doorway.

"It's Rufio again, Telron's with him in force" Vargas intoned gravely, obviously it wasn't an isolated incident of her father having to resort to this sort of barrelling.

"What's going on?" he asked concerned, interrupted by another voice likely use to command snapping at a milder set of outspoken voices. "My father allows his men to speak their minds-unfortunately. This is the result" Sentinel informed him not proudly, "That was okay; we got rid of the dissenter-traitors years ago, but the enclave…well now the men don't see a reason to fight alone against the mutants anymore, at least alone." The words sank in quickly.

"An alliance? No you can't be serious" Alex asked seriously, shocked "They know they shot an innocent city citizen in cold blood? How can they even think about an alliance-I thought you people fought for-"

"We know what we fight for kid" Colvin interrupted him abruptly, though not quite sharply "It's not always easy to stay on the line we've followed, as our numbers dwindle and our brothers die people forget about saving people who do nothing but accuse them and take pot shots when the chance appears" Vargas give him a look that said he agreed, "We're balancing on a pin here Alex, the tip is between abandoning DC and continuing towards other areas less infested, or fighting it out to our end or the mutants"

"But the enclave's appearance has put both those aims in doubt" the sentinel finished for her immediate underling, "There well equipped and at least similar to us in the way of tactics and being-well, human. It goes without saying that some people in the brotherhood have assumed that a pre-war government faction would want to rebuild the old world"

Alex nodded his head in understanding and crossed his garbed arms, "So why wouldn't they help you fight the mutants" he gathered a thread from the dissenters thought process. "Why won't your father simply take the chance on them" he mock asked.

The noise abated somewhat, Alex turned from the trio and noticed Elder Lyon's was now standing and out of the room peering towards them, a show of respect for a senior figure standing he reasoned. The elder approached him serene but oddly animated under his thick cobalt coiled robes, his eyes were gauging him and Alex stiffened unconsciously.

"My boy; it is a fine sight to see you on your feet" The Elder greeted him with genuine warmth, Alex realised that for people of his age or similar he'd usually only earned ire. His attitude wasn't great towards those less limber Mr Brotch had warned him, "You're feeling better then?" he queried at Alex's small smile.

He really was for that moment, the charge in the air or some positivity startling him from his foul mood in part. "I'm feeling…alright sir. I don't think I'll be my most charming though" Lyon's smiled tightly, his myriad of wrinkles betrayed his extreme age "My boy; anyone who doesn't skulk about in power armour all day is always a diplomat in these halls. Speak from your heart; tell them of the enclave and their barbarism, of your father's great works and sacrifice-make them understand what we fight for"

No pressure he thought, smiling lightly before masking his face in a guise of neutrality, his skin prickling underneath his 'soldier suit' as he moved into the press. There was no artificially thick shoulders encased in dust scarred suits; everyone together wore the common red scribe robes, exclusively brotherhood 'rear echelon' grey and speckle blue fatigues, some wore training or mechanic overalls.

All of them were pressed together around a long and winding pronged table which sat Elder Lyon at its connecting bridge, Rothchild upon his left while a hawk faced paladin of a veterans ages sat upon his right. Alex was directed around the table and into everyone's focus by Colvin who without tact continually prodded him with fingers he'd dubbed 'the claw'-half heard in his ear as he fought the urge to jump forward.

When Alex reached the 'ending' of the prongs Elder Lyon's started again, the vault dweller in him noted the fine sheen on the table even considering it was pre-war, "Brothers; sisters, all of you my friends in arms these many long years of trial. Before us we have a grave matter, something which has split us through the ranks it seems" the man paid due diligence to every set of gazing eyes to install some function of remembrance within them, "Every man who has spoken today has done so through half remembered tales; supposition and even daring hope. The man before you has seen them in their armoured press; fought against them, saw them murder callously, he will be our witness today-present yourself as you please" The head of the brotherhood took a swift seat, only a flash of uncomfortable pain crossing his face for a moment, Alex must have been the only one who caught it.

Everyone else in the room was staring intently at him.

"Yes well, as introduced, I'm Alexander Dawkins. And I'm from vault 101" He near bit out his tongue as he said the words; saw the bewilderment on some faces and Colvin's sheepish grin trying to hide behind a rubbing hand. He continued on as he had to, rolling over years in vault 101 in a sentence; a breath here for his escape and entry to Megaton, two more for his time across the wastelands in the caravans searching for his father.

It was all so pointless to these hard faces and lucid gazes that he skimmed over the proving point of his life to date, a kind of proving point in itself for what his experience to date had really meant. The thought foundered in the back of his mind until he felt his voice getting smaller, skimming Gunney's penetration of the Jefferson memorial onto Braun's vault, a belated mention of reaching his father and their return to Rivet City.

He hadn't even mentioned Indri, he wouldn't have too until he related the enclave cutting her down in the memorial.

The fact that they had ran through mercenaries meant nothing, everything up to the point where he brought up the super mutants seemed to glaze the eyes and make thoughts wander.

The hawk eyed paladin peeked at that, precisely when Alex skimmed the assault on the memorial, holding up a hand to stall him, "That was something I wondered about. Just how exactly did you and your father get past the mutants in the memorial and surrounding area? Our scouts reported numbers in excess of forty at the last report". Alex was glad to see someone finally took something of what he said onboard, perhaps it was a way for him to give them a rise.

"We didn't do it alone sir, actually my father didn't do any of the fighting, the man made his across the entirety of the old country, he could hide from himself if he had too" Alex told them without knowing if it was pride or not. "Knowing that I'm here with one third of the Rivet city council, you'd guess I was known by the rest. I managed to convince-or rather warn the security officers that a heavily armoured super mutant patrol might be joining those in the memorial force."

"Naturally the city council was alarmed that they might become isolated from their trading if the super mutant prescience continued" the paladin inclined his head, the man was attentive as his look suggested, "I convinced them that they should emplace men upon the far deck of their ships, using high calibre rifles and an old pre-war HMG. Chief Harkin had the idea of concealing men in the natural ridgeline of buildings across from the laneway onto the ship that they had scouted out."

"You drew them into an ambush then?" he asked, and Alex noted he had been taking notes on some almost pristine paper, "We did, myself; Gunney of who I've spoke, another wastelander named Indri and a mercenary team that went by the name sigma" Alex answered, the tension again building in his stomach.

Sigma, fucking pricks!

"We began by destroying a group in a large apartment building intersecting the roadway from the memorial to the city, smoked them out with flares and cut through them with automatic shotguns and high calibre rifles at close range" It was a pleasant memory for what it was, he hated mutants and ingrained into his head through the banging of the M14 rifle he'd used from a distance no farther than thirty yards.

"We got perhaps eight of them without return, retreated back towards the city as the mutants in the memorial picked up on it" Hawk inclined his head in appreciation.

"What was the state of their equipment?" he was asked by the sentinel now in the throng on the left, "Assault rifles and crude melee weapons for the most to them at the beginning. We encountered heavier firepower at their counterattack" her fair eyebrow peaked up "eight mutants with no reply? How'd you manage that at close quarters?"

Alex had to drive home a point before he disclosed something he'd buried for the part, "The mercenary leader Lawson had thought about our positioning, two lines at a vantage just beyond the building with firing calls."

"So the mutants got big and green and angry, followed you back up in force?" the hawk asked, "Gave them enough rope to hang themselves sir. They had miniguns and a shoulder launcher, didn't matter" Alex replied in a tone he thought wouldn't hurt for the militant types in the gathering.

It had cost three lives from the security force and a man from _sigma_, "I have to say that we went on and cleared out the memorial of another eight mutant's sir, switched out our rifles for jackhammers courtesy of the city. We'd broken their armoured back against the city once we drew them in, just about had to peel them off the walls in the memorial" No one minded the gruesome thought, he pressed on with clearing the memorial out.

It was as any in the wasteland a story of triumph really, going from vault 101 all across the wasteland, to DC and finally in the heart of the brotherhood, he didn't want to include what had happened in the memorial, but it would be a sin to forget his father or his sacrifice.

He started with the ingenious use of a heavy lifting pulleybot still in operation to drag the mutants into one concealable pit, the general state of repairs, leading to his trip through the stunted pipes of the memorial itself.

Then he told them about the vertibird's and the black armoured troopers, 'some post-war fabrication' Rothchild had interrupted unhappily, bursting out across the overrun tarmac to no resistance from the sigma outlook Wurtz.

What could he have done he'd reasoned at the time? Of course what would he have done, enclave as he had been, what had any of them did even as one of the black masked bastards had taken Gunney's arm from his shoulder, they'd drank and fought and survived with the man!

Alex had found his tongue tied almost to knots as he described the attack, the paladins wanting details of tactics and weaponry, where he could only say 'that black armour that sometimes crackled as Gunney's bullets hit' or 'plasma weapons that sling blots thick as a super mutant-had taken Gunney's arm through his plating without resistance'.

His father's death wasn't glossed over but it came out rushed all the same, his reason; his entire life, forced from the man as colonel Autumn's bullet scattered Janice's cognitive matter across the purifier's floor.

Rothchild saw further perhaps, 'How could enclave men blend in, why would they want them too?'

Alex knew Lawson well enough, it wasn't all an act from the calm; almost passive mercenary captain who was in actuality an enclave captain, had he killed Indri as well? Her count was low in rads naturally…

Elder Lyons could have primed him for it Alex suspected, because just then Elder Lyon's pinned in from where he had sat mutely as he drifted "A pertinent question scribe Rothchild. Tell me Alexander, why does the enclave strike first for your fathers work?"

The implication behind the question was there indeed, why did the advanced, superior post-war force want some long infested memorial before a critical blow against either force capable of resisting them?

"I would say water sir, simply water."

"You'll need to do a spot better than that" the Hawk advised seriously, "We all appreciate a man who can lay waste to mutants in good fashion, but we need to know why we should turn our guns on the enclave."

"As I said, Water, no radiation or sickness, no muck to let diseases stew and breed, a very simple idea that has far reaching consequences" Alex told them, feeling resolute at the summoning of his father's dream. "It's the very bedrock of life yet there isn't a single source of it for six hundred miles at least. Men kill each other day by day just to get their hands on another man's lightly irradiated water, who here hasn't heard of an entire town being wiped out by slavers or raiders; mercenaries or even desperate men for a water purifier?"

"What exactly is so important about this purified itself?" Hawk asked, "Is it the scale itself? Or are we talking something more?"

"Something far, far more I assure you, something worth the enclave showing their hand" Alex could feel so actual enthusiasm in the room, beyond perhaps what he'd seen in the eyes of the warriors on the mention of the fight with the mutants, "The scale on my father's original projections, water that you could lift out and barrel up? Enough for the brotherhood itself for five years for each and every member counted within six months of purifying and with suitable manpower" More peaking heads.

"Beyond that, you're talking about the eventual effective removing of irradiation from the tidal basin within the year, a gradual expansion following through the Potomac as the winds and rain does its job."

"Clean and healthy water, that much" one scribe asked from the far corner near Rothchild, "some very interesting implications. Suitable for drinking; cooking, cleaning and washing, body hygiene cries out for it alone" the man joked, but a soldier tight faced and rigid countered immediately.

"I'm paladin Ruffio" He started in a dry tone, "as most of you well know; even if some of you don't want to know" some light humour invaded the room, and then escaped just as quickly "I'm here because I've fought long and hard to rid the ruins of the green menace. Fought as hard and as long as anyone- that goes for the pride or whoever" Alex saw Lyon's; both of them narrow their eyes but the man continued apace, "I've heard of wastelander deaths; regrettable-I've even heard of what your father did, a brave thing if he felt he needed to save the work he was doing…your water" Alex tensed as he caught the indication behind the man's placating, insulting tone.

"I've not heard why we should fight. Not you; you've got your reasons, maybe so do Rivet and the relatives of Gunney-or Indri or Janice, but what does that constitute to the brotherhood except more deaths in a hostile warzone?" The man sat to the left of the table, Vargas almost fought forward to yank him from his seat "Those people died for what the brotherhood believes in Rufio! Show some damn respect" the man was livid, Elder Lyon shouted him down to restrain his emotions, but Rufio neither flinched nor turned.

He went further, "The mutants grow in strength, how many have we all combined to gut? At least twice our number when we were at full strength, which was many; many years ago. Now we're talking about fighting a group technologically superior, advanced beyond our comprehension! And for what- a few dead wastelanders?" the room erupted again, more violent this time to include the pride amassed o the left struggling to accuse Rufio, of being malicious or uncaring or what they said in a snarl – 'outcast'

"Why didn't you go with the rest of the traitors!" Vargas shouted within the confines of the prides entangling arms, but Rufio turned this time "What, I lose my brothers day after day! And for what, those bastards out there scraping rocks together for fire? Any one of them with a gun is either a raider or a slaver-the rest are useless, waiting for the last dogtag to fall trophy!"

"Paladin Vargas! Paladin Rufio! Restrain yourselves" the hawk ordered above the din, commanding it twice over before the men relented and the clamour died down to small jibes and insults.

Rufio wasn't done by any estimation, pushing himself free "they haven't attacked us; haven't barraged us with scowls and bullets like some of these raider bastards and slavers have, haven't shuffled away from us in distaste like the ordinary rock banging wasters. There closer to us in my eyes than the wretches we have to fight daily just to save daily. I say we look at this enclave the way we should do. As allies who could tip us over the edge against the mutants, aren't they here to rebuild America?"

Alex now see the depth of the schism, scribes and paladins had decried each other from every part of the room at the threat of a scuffle, Alex hadn't improved the argument for fighting the enclave, he needed something to at least upset Rufio's ideal.

Why should they fight for his father's doomed project at the edge of the Potomac, against a force who seemed more like them than the people who they were fighting to protect?

"The brotherhood's core benefit" he mouthed out far too loudly, gaining a glance from some faces that had turned away from the powder keg in the corner.

"You said something Alexander" the elder asked and Alex nodded resolutely, Rufio and Vargas turned giving him a moment. He knew what he had to say, or rather do. Use some of that fancy vault education as the sentinel said, an argument formulated in his mind.

"Yes, I wanted to say that water isn't just water" he replied quietly, confidently "I don't think that's being understood, and while clear pure water makes for a good shower, that isn't quite what I was thinking when I meant it to sound important. You really want to know why the enclave has shown their hand Rufio."

"Of course" the man answered honestly, probably the only thing Alex could say well of the man at this point, but he thought he might have something to at least 'unhorse him' as Mr. Brock use to say.

"I'll tell you again then, water." Alex insisted with finality, but he would take the man apart at his own arguments now "It isn't just something to let you have a dip in the basin; or to take a long gulp of after a hard day cracking mutant hide. It's the waters of life; called it for a reason, not only will it let the wasteland finally breath again, but it'll let you and your brothers feed again, Rivet and Megaton feed again, every wastelander from here to the Pitt and beyond will fall over themselves when they hear about the aqua pura-who couldn't when all they had through their life is the hope of growing an extra limb or maybe having their guts rotted out."

Rufio went to speak, to cry him down but Alex held up a hand to silence him, on he went "Rebuilding the circle of life not good enough? How about this: Imagine every leather skinned; one bullet bull's-eye shooter from here to as far as the wasteland stretches, imagine them all fighting it out tooth and nail for some measly scrapes of bread and whatever water they can find that won't burn them from the inside out. Now imagine those people who've broke their backs just so survive, hearing from down south that there's been a curing of the tidal basin, that every single one of them can have as much water as they can carry and drink, you getting the idea?"

"A hell of a bribe" Rufio admitted to Alex's smile, he nodded gamely "What's the population of the wasteland? A few thousand including its outer reaches, perhaps ten thousand in total in the outer extremities? Think on this: If half of that number is within immediate word of mouth of the DC ruins, then you have an audience of thousands. Say perhaps that thirty five hundred of them all in are slavers; mercenaries with bloody hands, raiders and scumbags, imagine the remaining fifteen hundred are good men-what do you have?"

"Three times the number of our house" Rothchild offered and Alexander nodded again with the smile that didn't leave "Let's say for argument one third of those are the old or the invalid, everyone knows the old don't last too long out here. Let's say the remaining thousand are good; not so bad or useless outright, let's say they all have a taste that every man in the wasteland has-what have you got?"

It was Rufio who begrudged him the answer "A large recruiting base" Alex clicked his fingers, he was in the swing of things, just like listening to one of his father's old rat pack records "That's maybe the worst case scenario, you'd have people lining up to fight as long as you allowed them to live. For those that don't fight well you have unheard of numbers for scavenger teams; miners, food preppers and mechanics, a windfall of manpower that would revitalise your strength in a few months"

"The power of water" Colvin spoke up, the sentinel looked pleased, but Rufio was obstinate. "Maybe you're right, maybe we get even a tenth of that number in fighting strength. In four months time if we were able to train and equip them all then we'd be one fifth off better than we were a year ago, a good point" he conceded a lot, but turned on his own reasoning in what Alex felt were body blows "That's _if_ we fight the enclave. You do realise what you're proposing, just what we'd be facing? Early reports have their number at the purifier alone for a hundred strong at least; every black mask equipped with flamers and plasma weapons we haven't managed to dig up here in all the years we've tried. Their emplacing artillery strong enough to shatter our power suits by the scribes estimations, they have post-war production capabilities-they have vertibird's!" Rufio shook his head that glanced a fraying light of gray upon his thinly cut scalp.

"If I'm honest kid, I like your idea, fought for it since I first set eyes on the DC ruins, my head didn't turn that much when all the closest brothers I had stabbed the elder in the back" Rufio sounded brutally sincere, soul wrenching rather than outspoken in a twist "If we turn and fight the enclave now everything we've fought for will have been for nothing, we'll all be slaughtered fighting _the good fight_" the man stood finally, almost tiredly and looked at his most immediate superior, a thoughtful Elder Lyons, "Do what you will sir, I wouldn't have abandoned you this late in the game-didn't do it early. You want one more throw of the dice for this kid and his father's legacy? I'll be standing behind you with a muzzle over your shoulder or standing between you and those green bastards as I always have."

To the surprise of the men who were supporting him, Alex had noticed most of them in the scrappy argument earlier; Rufio made for the door and left without another word, Lyon's watched him go and his daughter across from him looked on with sheer worry on her face.

Going for the sympathetic maybe? Alex reasoned on Rufio, realising that if he sounded right then it was a callous thought.

But how torn up did the Elder look sitting in turmoil, unsure and feeble almost surrounded in the midst of the brotherhood power.

"Perhaps we should retire this…debate for later in the day sir" Rothchild suggested, sensing the mood in the room becoming stale, and Alex for his part didn't know how to proceed himself.

"Agreed Rothchild, all of you return to your regular duties" Immediately the room returned to that sense of discipline Alex had noted before, every man and woman raising themselves and giving a salute before emptying the room. Elder Lyons stayed with Rothchild and the hawk, the sentinel gave a hushed command to Vargas before moving for him where he'd stayed rooted.

She looked pleased enough despite Rufio's action, the good job she'd given him stated as much but she did seem somewhat reluctant with him suddenly, waited until the room was clear before she was honest, "I didn't think Rufio would have been as smart as that, play on my father's emotions that is. It didn't help that he done a great outline of just what exactly the enclave has to bear as well"

"What do we do now then?" he asked dismally, beginning to get the feeling that the real remonstrations had begun in the elders mind.

"We wait, and maybe get you some food" Alec had felt his hunger return, but waiting to find out what they'd have to do? He hated delays more than anything, spent enough time wandering through the wastes here and there because of them, "Either argument will be lent weight as the reports come back from our scouts across the ruins, on the muties and the enclave both. Come on, I'll show you where the mess is"

He was as hungrier than he thought, ravenous even given the quality of what the brotherhood had in its mess hall; mushed up carrots and turnip just as they'd done in the vaults in a poor imitation, fresh fruit and a soluble meat substitute that didn't go down quite as badly as he expected a brahmin milkshake.

All of it was produced in hydroponic labs held in the rear of the high ringed facility, tended to by the brotherhood scribes relegated behind weaponry and defence in importance, something similar in Rivet City save for the idea of expansion or practical devolvement to others in the wastelands isolated places of civilisation.

"The brotherhood enforces order with laser rifles and big scary suits kid" Vargas had reminded him when he brought up why they hadn't attempted to investigate the technology further, "We don't see farming as the lynchpin to annihilating the muties once and for all. Not on our capabilities anyway, that's why you and your fathers work is so important" the man reminded him, or was he placating him? He doubted it having seen his vent his spleen earlier.

The people around him were good as well, patient and humorous for the most, the sort who'd help a person forget just how screwed up things had become in so short a time. Colvin was a silver hearted angel from his own words; never letting his temper turn nasty except when he grilled Dusk, another member of the pride who'd called him a 'pig' and left to stew.

Kodiak and Vargas were the serious ones of the bunch, didn't mince words and comforting in their own way of being both honest and on his side of things. Glade was the oldest and funniest of the lot, he didn't seem to have lost a single flick of his mind in all the years he'd fought in DC, the sentinel-Sarah was as disarming or serious as anyone together as the situation required.

It left him fairly relaxed when Rothchild appeared in the door of the mess hall as hasty as the man ever appeared, almost breathless and very pensive. He approached the table and gave the squad a salute, "Brothers" he greeted them all tightly, "Sentinel, can I have a word-in fact, why don't all of you come along. Gallows is back; he hasn't brought good news" Sharing worried glances the squad got up to follow the head scientist, "Come on boy!" Colvin whistled back when he noticed Alex held still at the table, sheepishly he followed.

Rothchild led them to a small room just off the mess hall, stocked with sheets of surplus bedding frames; cabinets, old hospital lights, anything miscellaneous that the brotherhood might ever need. Inside surprisingly also in such a dark and dank room; was the Elder and another man, windswept looking under a muck stained duster, dark skin highlighted by a sheen of sweat that he hadn't gotten around to wiping off.

Alex remembered him from Galaxy news; quiet and always on the fringe of the squad, didn't say a word during the battle in anger or adrenaline, or after except, to volunteer for two consecutive watch periods.

"Your report Sentinel" he offered quickly, leaving the daughter of the Elder to scan the document with a wary expression.

"Gallows never brings good news" Glade muttered in their small assembly, and worriedly Colvin and Kodiak nodded almost nervously both.

It was as bad as they expected, the Sentinel's hand went unconsciously to rub her brow, the Elder nodded apologetically and Alex felt his hands tighten again, what had gallows found?

"Two parties-massing groups of super mutants approaching the dc ruins, strength exceeding a century by at least a dozen-behemoths present". she read the news with a bitter twang to her voice, and suddenly Alex felt the whole room fall apart.

"One hundred plus supers?" Vargas mouthed as if struck, "That's impossible; you must have got run over yourself Gallows, maybe counted the smaller ulgies twice when they split-

"No splitting this time, no mistaking it either captain" Gallows coolly replied, apparently having made his peace with the information he brought. "I watched them for a day and a night at Germantown, waited while they massed their forces together. I stayed with them until I noticed some captives being taken North West by a smaller party; routed off to follow and rescue" Just who follows off parties of super mutants to kill them? "I managed to catch them around an undiscovered settlement named Big Town; the people were from that place."

"That close to Germantown? There either stupid or have some serious firepower" Glade suggested.

"Probably the first one I'll guess" Kodiak interrupted, "Did they manage to tell you anything useful? Where the bastards are coming from maybe?" Gallows gave his head a slight shake, "The group's refugees from somewhere farther west, tired and scared. They spend most of their days hiding and hoping the mutants don't come by"

Alex was surprised by the information, well informed by most wastelanders that anything beyond Arefu was a ghost town, like Minefield all the way to the perverse sanctuary off Paradise Falls. Anyone living that far out had to be just what Glade had surmised and it didn't help them one bit.

"After that I caught the mutants again just by the Chryslus building, moving for the passing point at Dupont West, obviously there going to attempt to head straight for the mall through Georgetown."

Elder Lyon's having been quiet for the most at this point betrayed his anxiety by clenching his eyes shut and just stopping himself from smacking the crap strewn table behind him.

"Paladin Carron is holding the mouth of northern Georgetown in a defensive fighting position, with a squad of five men" the Elder bemoaned loudly, "They would only have enough ammunition to hold the mutants for an hour or two; if there not simply overrun outright. And if they get through! Gods above, our force at the monument will be decimated."

Sentinel Lyon spoke as any of them could have hoped too, "Father; we aren't just going to let those freaks walk over us are we? It'll take time for them to reach Georgetown fully and start an assault; we can mobilize the pride-support of four other squads" she insisted vehemently, but Rothchild and her father were aligned in their negativity.

"If this is known within the brotherhood then not one man will wish to fight the enclave" Elder Lyon's insisted with weary resignation, if it was possible then Alex was sure he'd aged ten years in mere moments. "Rothchild informs me that many of those who favour seeking an alliance-even non-aggression have wavered, and we may yet find that many will stand with my decision to fight the enclave"

"This news will endanger all of that however" Rothchild continued just as gravely, "Whatever happens in the mall, in Georgetown, then it must happen without the brotherhood at large knowing." The implications were clear, what Elder Lyons was asking of a squad no more than eight strong knowing that they would face an army more than ten times there number.

It was sheer madness, and even still the Sentinel stepped up, "We can coordinate with our brothers in the mall, alert them through at our resupply position on the opposite bank and order them to send assistance to Carron in Georgetown. It'll delay the muties long enough to allow them to set up a line of retreat the mall"

She was more confident than Vargas, who took a line to breach protocol and ask very seriously "I'm sorry Elder; Sentinel, but are we really talking about just giving up the mall, just like that? Many of our brothers have died holding it. It's the heart of DC-

"We're well aware paladin Vargas" the elder interrupted sympathetically but strictly, but didn't leave it so blunt "The truth is that which we all know, if we stand and hold our ground and fight as we are now, then we shall all of us fall man by man until the end. If however we unify together; and re-concentrate our strength, then we may have a chance to taking the enclave at the purifier"

It was that time that the pride showed their concern through Vargas again, "No offence to you Elder; or you Alex, but to what end? Will the water alone save us from annihilation?" Elder Lyon's formed his mouth into a grim line.

"If we do not fight for it; then the enclave will have sole control in the rebirth of this land which we have fought so long and hard for. I tell you all now, it will be not be an end worth seeing."

Doubts allayed, if not hidden under their discipline, the pride began to discuss the strategy of dealing with the mutants in so few number, 'We'll not even have enough ammo to deal with them all' 'Not unless we bring along a fatboy-or maybe we could dig a 50 out of the armoury', Alex was sure the talk was suicide even for them, but the quiet man of the group spoke up.

"I delivered the ordinance to Carron's position including a fatboy, after our battle for GNR" Gallows dreary voice said lending some hope, "Owing to the multitude of smaller numbers and divergence Carron refused to stack it up however. There's no way to get a reliable radio channel through all the interference of the overhanging cityscape wreckage, but if a man could get there to warn them…"

Sentinel Lyon's refused to entertain the notion, "Impossible, what we've got here is enough to just about hold our own for a time we get spotted early or can't link up. Even if my father can convince Tristan to lend us some quality support under the guise of a supply squad, we'll be hard up to press any advantage of surprise"

In the skirmish for GNR Alex had seen the effect of a fatboy detonation even on a super mutant behemoth, bursting through a hasty erected shield wall consisting of an overturned supply lorry, the thirty foot monster had shrugged off minigun salvo's and high calibre rifle fire like it was bred to do so.

Alex was stood by dry firing a worn down R91 rifle when Vargas had pulled him towards a filthy fountain polluted by mutants flesh and blood, leaving him without enough time to ask what was going on before the paladin laid a leaden fat boy over his shoulder and telling him to aim _up_.

He never quite had been able to dismiss the smell of the resulting explosion, or rather decimation; as parts of the 'smaller' mutants reigned down around the two part missing husk of the behemoth itself, couldn't help and laugh as joyfully as the rest of the pride hollered and swore to whatever deity they could recall from before the bombs dropped.

"I'll go" he told them, confident despite the looks of confusion and disbelief he received in return, "You'll go where" Rothchild from among them asked, but Alex could see in more than a pair of eyes that they knew exactly where he meant.

"Georgetown and Carron, I'll deliver the news and tell them to prepare" he answered, knowing it had to be him. Everyone else here wasn't as expendable in the grand scheme of things, every knight and paladin had years of experience and dozens of mutants to their credit, he was as newborn as the day he entered vault 101 in comparison.

The Sentinel and Elder were united in preventing it however, "With all due respect, you don't know what you're volunteering for my boy. Georgetown is a warzone even more chaotic than the mall, and we only maintain a minimal prescience there. If we were to allow you to attempt to get through and contact Carron…I would not feel as if I've done your fathers memory any justice"

"My father's right, even brotherhood doesn't travel through Georgetown unless we have squad strength at least" the Sentinel followed, "It would be near suicide for one man, much less an inexperienced one."

"It's good then that I've been half way across the wasteland then" Alex replied verging on defiant, he wouldn't sit around here and wait for whatever the enclave was planning to come up, he couldn't imagine another day in that room, sweating and reliving. "I'm not willing to let you all fight a war with the bastards who killed my father and stand aside while you do it. I'll start by getting word to Carron and helping the pride survives, so that we can get the purifier back." Alex held up a hand as the Sentinel went to protest again, Alphonse could have never kept him in line, James didn't do much better either.

A funny way the world worked, that heartless bastard had probably killed half of vault 101 by now, his father was likely just ash in the Jefferson memorial.

"I'm not in your rank and file, I'm not a knight or even a initiate" Alex removed his pip-boy through the key-coded clasp on the underside of the scarred hide, "Input coordinates and a route for me Rothchild, I expect you know the workings" Giving the Elder a respectful nod, Alexander rounded on the irate Sentinel, "I think it's best you show me to the armoury, I wouldn't want to make it too easy for the greenies."


	2. Chapter 2

Waka-Waka

* * *

Audrey remembered the first time she knew for a certain she'd leave the brotherhood.

It has been many long and hard years ago, one night when she slept in the initiate quarters in a high cot dreaming of nothing but the new cream dispenser in the crèche kitchens. Annie in private; Knight Anne-Marie Morgan in public, had entered with a whisper, not known to anyone but her when those well lacerated hands wrapped themselves around her then frail form.

She'd not cried out then, never had; because brotherhood don't cry out in the crib or the cauldron, but she stifled a wail and wiped away a tear when her sister spoke in that soft-reserved only for her little cub voice.

"I'm sorry baby, but I'm going on a mission for awhile. It's so important that you wouldn't believe!" She'd enthused even behind her sad smile, and Audley had believed her; entirely and completely, to the day today when she knew her time was up to leave the brotherhood. "I can't take you with me; little soldier. But one day you'll come and join me and we'll be standing together scourging the wastes-just like mama and papa." Audrey still remembered how proud she felt, not sobbing or betraying her broken heart.

It was her resolve that held her in place today, listening to the same foolishness that had driven her sisters back onto the path behind Casdin, nonsense and futile ideas of the messianic 'brotherhood of the wastelanders' spouted from the mouth of a Lyon apologist.

Here they were; the cream of the warriors available to the brotherhood on the entire eastern coast, and they were talking about fighting an option against the mutant menace, 'To limit their threat against the mall, the wastelanders and scavengers', _even the ghouls!_

"So we're fighting over one hundred heavily armed and armoured mutants, on the basis of protecting some blown out buildings, and for what, scavengers who wouldn't give us a bullet except to the faceplate?" she asked in the reserved tone she'd learn to adapt when dealing with Carron, one of Lyon's sycophants, a good soldier who'd spent years trawling the D.C area to play knight in shining power armour to ungrateful assholes, who for his trouble had been sent to die a futile death in Georgetown.

"We're following orders Knight Morgan, I expect nothing but that from you" Carron tersely replied, and Audrey knew exactly what he meant, _all I expect from you, not that you'd ever get on board with our ritual suicide to these rot gut bastards who hate us as much as the greens_.

Ghouls! Lyon had even mentioned the ghouls, it made her stomach fail as much as their filthy irradiated skin had. She was going to die without meeting her sister again in this life, would be remembered on a wall in the Citadel that would likely be overrun in another ten years time.

The wastelander who had delivered the news and falsely claimed he was a former vault dweller stood to the left of the wreckage that was once Georgetown's premier penthouse; an eyesore slightly more up risen that the other myriad of skeletal wrecks that made up the urban district and well beyond.

He was wiry; broad shouldered if only that the rest of him was so reedlike, with a face of a relatively pale complexion compared to most leather faced rock bangers, unattractive as all wastelanders were to her, bruised and scrapes covering all of the exposed skin from his face to his fingers.

An obvious by-product; if he could even relate to what that meant, of Lyon's doctrine, the man-or rather boy was not an outright coward, something she'd seen in anyone not in a suit of power armour facing down the scourge. It didn't make her feel the least bit better about what had been said here today however, one wastelander with a rifle didn't make the slightest bit of different considering it was just her; Carron, Anthony, Mannone and initiate Evans.

They had the firepower to arm seven fully armoured paladins to be effective for perhaps twenty to twenty five minutes if they really wished to put the fist to the mutants, the worn but still reliable fat man alone meant that they could annihilate both behemoths provided they walked into a suitable trap.

They didn't have seven paladins however; they had herself, a sniper and that just, Carron and Anthony who were men to revel in the grinder, but beyond that a paladin in Mannone who couldn't do much but swing his super sledge around like a mutant, and Evans…well the less said or thought about him the better.

"We'll set the fat boy up facing the main approach to the hole, wait for the ulgies to show us the bigger; prettier faces" Carron told them in his usual authoritarian voice, unaware that he sounded like a Lyonian lickspittle even when he was going about what everybody's business in the waste should have been on their off time.

"Morgan will set up high and pick off anything that looks like it can do anymore damage to this wreck, Mannone will watch the two access points we've found and keep this from being a grinder" Much hope of that with five men and a wastelander, fool. "Evans will support him, meanwhile I'll take one of the Llight machine guns and Anthony will be on the other. Alex was it? I'll need you to use one of the few explosive rifles we still have working around here, something like that can make a mess of super mutants by the pair if you get a good hit" Launcher work was usually resolved for Evans when he wasn't zipping rifle fire off the ruined concrete debris that all the Talon company scum hid behind in their attempts to 'yard by yard' their chokepoint to the mall.

Carron didn't trust the wastelander by his soiled and ragged rather than hardened look, the boys non-accented; even polite tones did nothing to convince him either of his use she could guess. Perhaps he'd manage some luck with the grunt work while she kept them from the missiles and flamers that always managed to work their way into those big grimy green paws.

It didn't really matter as long as she was there to save them from a cleared section across the back, or being roasted like a duck in the oven.

With whatever feeling of brotherhood she had remaining in her Audrey emplaced the gauntlets and helmet of her run down T-45d armour, not bothering to reflexively poke her heat skin protected finger through the torn slip in her armour that went third set of her ribcage to her fifth, it didn't bear thinking that only splintered steel protected her there from what would be a debilitating gut wound.

She hated the feeling of the suit after a long engagement, when the body layer under failed to stem the tingle that turned to heat rash given enough free reign. She doubted any of the members of 'Lyon's Pride' ever even had their suits on long enough to receive the red fleshy hue she saw every time she glanced in a grimy wasteland mirror, those glory hunters only managed to show up and be 'the hammer' when the real veterans like herself had been thoroughly gutted.

She'd managed to break apart; clean, reassemble and stockpile ammunition beside a corner side viewing window which she'd fortified with thick stone and mortar on the underside before she was bothered, just as a light pulse of rain began to add more misery to the smoke locked skyline.

It was the waster, looking worse than stupid approaching her through the sheared husk of the room that she took her advantage in, four floors above where Mannone and Evans would be, one above and to the right turn where Carron and Anthony were setting up.

"Carron thought you might want one of these" the waster offered in his hand an apple; probably grown and cured in the Citadel where he'd came from through Georgetown to them. Audrey immediately refused what he had to offer with a brisk 'no', she feel queasy at the thought of anything that touched a waste born entering her mouth.

He didn't immediately turn away at her underlying reluctance to talk with him, probably thought she cared more about what she saw outside her dusk stricken opening. It would have been fine for her if he hadn't closed the distance between them, peering down into the wreckage of Georgetown.

She was almost about to admonish him before she realised it didn't matter if one of the Talon company caught sight of his waiting; un-armoured head, they'd be only be slightly worse off if his inner cranial matter got all over her armour.

"Shouldn't you be down learning how to load the launcher?" she asked tersely after he hovered over the edge a second too long, "I know how to load and fire a sling style weapon. I learned tossing grenades from the same weapon near the Jefferson at the ulgies" If that was meant to impress her then he was wrong, dead wrong soon enough. Standing she pulled him away from the window and back enough steps to cause him momentary alarm.

"Stay away from the window! You'll get those Talon company scum onto my position" berating him felt good she admitted, there was nothing worse than someone who puffed themselves up and talked about gutting mutants. "You want to gloat about killing a few mutants do it with Evans, I've been out in this shit too long far too deal with assholes like you." She picked up her rifle; cleared and inspected it before slotting her almost meticulous 7.62 magazine into the receiver.

He didn't leave however, instead fixing her with a pathetic accusatory glare "Hey I'm just trying to be nice, if it wasn't for me you'd not have known anything about the mutants" Audrey set her weapon down and focused her optics on him, "You don't have to be such an asshole-

He really didn't expect her to cross the short distance between them and drive him onto his back painfully; kicking out his legs from under him knocking him sprawling over.

"Fuck you" she breathed in a real effort not to raise her power boot and cave his chest in, "I'm the only thing that kept you safe all those times you ran through this wrecked hellhole of a city-stealing whatever you could through in your sack, like the pathetic cockroaches you wastelanders are." He raised himself up and briefly his hand itched towards the piss poor pistol he had slung under his arm like some pre-war Canadian militant, "Get down stairs and do some good for once"

"You're losing it-already lost it" he told her definitely, not backing down or squaring his shoulders, "I lost my best friend; father, people I cared about just to help save this city, fought against the mutants and the god damn enclave if you can even consider that-" His face for a moment lost its scornful look and she realised he just caught his own slip.

What did he mean by the enclave? Those stupid broadcasts that looped seemingly anywhere across the wasteland, how the hell did he fight them? "What do you mean the enclave?" she asked suspiciously.

Looking unnerved she thought he wasn't going to let her in on what he knew of whatever happened outside the pit she'd been infesting with the monsters, until he told her point of fact "The enclave is more than just those awful prompts you hear on the radio, they've finally came to D.C."

Audrey was shocked enough that she barely heard Carron downstairs shouting up to check the sector, the enclave here in D.C? After all those years of babbling about restoring America and remaking the wasteland, they'd finally come and put their bodies where their mouths had been.

It didn't even bear asking what sort of force the former government of the commonwealths had at their disposal, but she still could have squealed when she heard him talk lamely of 'airborne vehicles' and 'post-war fabricated power armour'.

Something about his tone of put her however, enough that she actually cared to ask why he was suddenly to pensive, "Has there been any contact with them, has the Elder sent out an emissary team?" His eyes shot a definitive cut of hate at that suggestion.

"Elder Lyon's doesn't want anything to do with the enclave, considering the bastards have already murdered as many people as they've met" His tone was bitter enough to suggest personal animosity, but she'd be damned if she gave one care to this fool and his petty squabbles over a dead junkie girlfriend or whatever his problem was.

She approached him and quickly had him reaching for space behind; finding that he was quickly being corned under the near shattered doorvein that led to the only escape route save for going over the side into the protruding girders.

"You're telling me that Lyon's has met the most technologically advanced force we've ever encountered, and he's going to try and ignore them-over what? A few dead wasters?" He nipped under her outstretched gauntlet and got around her, without her caring that the air had turned as foul as the night appeared.

"Their murderer's" he accused, attempting to keep a distance as she tried to keep her head, did that bastard Carron tell him to keep quiet? "They butchered good people for no apparent reason other than they could, are they the sort of allies you want?"

He didn't know that she really didn't care as long as she was the one who could help-or manage to drive the final nail into the mutant coffin, she'd have told him as much and that she didn't give a single atoms worth of care about his sort, if a rifle shot hadn't cracked so close by to alert her to danger.

She usually didn't notice the faraway bang or even the occasional misplaced shot on the skeleton of the building itself, but the fact that she could make out the sort of calibre fired and the short distance was something.

It was the sort of rifle Evan's had been embarrassing himself with, and to confirm the fact Anthony came up to her in a quick hustle even wearing his own potch marked power armour, "Surf's up grouch, mutants sighted and the kid gave off a shot. Hit the bastard as well, so first time for everything" Anthony was one of the men she liked best, even if she preferred that he used those steely hands to beat some sense into that idiot Evan's.

"Downstairs waster, it's time to put these bastards to rights" he ordered in his usual gruff but near always playful tone, "You; make sure you knock the head of any of those bastards carrying anything big enough to make me have to jump out the window again."

Audrey agreed and set her helmet up for its full power capability, at a switch able to produce both thermal and low visibility counteracting optics that helped in the always dark and sometimes stormy Georgetown nights.

Situated atop the best vantage point across the south-eastern reaches Audrey could make out everything depending at which outlook she settled herself at, where she tilted herself over into the easiest 'prone' position-in reality half crouching half lying in her sometimes awkward armour. Settled directly in front of her was the approach to the absolutely ravaged Georgetown metro entrance; crisscrossed on both flank by buildings that had been shot up and shattered so many times with high explosives and rapid fire weapons to look like popinjays, the approach to her position and the wide entry to the mall some six hundred yards away was levelled almost completely.

Every folksy store front that hadn't been emplaced under a store was entirely gutted and almost all of them were certainly collapsed upon themselves save for a few around their position. The high rises intertwining were those that looked like the gutted skeletal remains of a city pushed through a nuclear enhanced avatar.

It was all so horrific and soul wearing that Audrey found herself remembering just how apathetic she'd become to 'the good fight' and the lives of the ordinary wastelanders, because she didn't find herself at one point caring at how much destruction had been wrought anymore.

She just wanted to find a weapon large enough to send every mutant from here to Lost Hills straight to the incinerator, but she'd settle for the hideous miscreations she saw spilling from the torn up metro tunnel and the sundered buildings around.

They had to entice the mutants in so she started with a clear shot on one dumb green lout that lumbered forward in an almost daze with a heavy steel girder in hand, not meeting resistance from his thick skull as she placed a shot down wind that caught him beautifully.

She had six rounds available and managed four mutants in succession, impressive she thought levelling five of those six into the waiting heads of the now swarming creatures. She reloaded her weapon with ingrained precision, a light drizzle threatened outside to turn the ground acidic and slippery if she only provided enough mutant blood to mix with it.

Another magazine yielded four mutants, three of the usual mindless dross and one sheet armoured chief that had to have his helmet blown off before his head, it didn't take them long to find the source of their enemy, the rush came on in the usual thicket of pounding feet and mis-placed shots.

Audrey activated her night-vision to better locate the cream from the dross, aware that behind five charging bodies of fodder was a smarter mutant with some inconceivably well maintained and supplied weapon.

Carron and Anthony's support weapons went loud and punishing just as she searched out those more dangerous, bullets through her optics riddled the rushing mutants across their numbers; a dozen maybe more but she saw three on the slow approach, ranged her weapon and caught one, two and finally three with two shots a piece, dropping the central mutant while the leftmost creature howled and raged as it's face was sheared off.

The grenade launcher fired and caught two mutants across their passage; Carron hefted a weapon he'd loaded prior and began shredding more flesh as the mutant remnant raged for battle, Audrey pushed down concern as her two surviving 'charges' levelled their high fire rifles at Carron's position and made quick work off the injured mutant before ending his friend with no less than four rounds to his head.

The older and larger these bastards got the thicker their skulls did, but her 7.62 delivery service matched up against most if not all what came to bear.

How would they manage against power armour post-fabricated she thought in a distraction that was thrown off by the arrival of more mutants through their entryway, she was disgusted that they'd been pinned by those Talon scumbags long enough not to be able to lay down anti-mutant mines farther from where they held the line.

Audrey snapped a dry magazine free and reached for a new one easily accessible but found herself grasping as she felt the unmistakeable pound of a far too heavy foot, something so unmistakeable and inescapable that she felt the tremor in her chest.

Behemoth on the move, pulling and grasping; roaring and raging, the towering malformation of the old world virus pulled its way through a slight crack of some five meters between two four story ruins.

At its heel was a further massing of armour and heavy weaponry that had been devoid in those mutants heaped across the approach to their position, the strength of which was not lost on Carron below.

"Load up the fat boy Anthony, get ready boys!" he howled atop the menace that the behemoth promised. Audrey knew the skirmish was over; the battle came at the rushing _clank_ and _whirl_ off the mutant advance.

Audrey focused on the thicker throats and bulbous heads; her rifle scoring hits and levelling hundreds of pounds of mutated flesh and supplementing armour bullet by bullet, Carron and Anthony below took so much precautions and spewed their bullets into the ranks-scoring armour and piercing body flesh as well as brains and vitals.

The wastelander's grenades done enough to separate swathes of flesh from mutants massed together in what was risible skill if any, but there was no one side to this fight.

Bullets slapped and hissed around her; cracked against her faceplate, off her armour, wilting away at her nerves as she began to need a second too long to grab a magazine, While the behemoth began to take up its momentum in a rush she'd seen once crush two paladins under a dislodged train in a long since abandoned northern campaign.

A spate of bullets knocked her optics useless for a moment and she rolled off her position as much as she was able, a moment later and all she could see was the dust and shards associated with incoming minigun fire.

Downstairs sounded horrible with shouts for ammo; a reload or the fatboy, getting up she saw the menace two hundred yards at best; at its side she noted with horror a pair of lumbering mutants loading a missile launcher that was surely within a dead cert distance.

She noted her weapon was the slightest fraction lighter than what she noted as full magazine, pushing forward to a more precious position she looked out-took aim and fired on the mutant just as it depressed the mechanism on the launcher.

Taking it's foot at a stroke of luck the mutant jerked and launched the weapon further up and high; to the leftmost and most advantageous room for vantage-hers. A thick old world football shaped object was pumped from the floor ajar to her own as the missile careened for her.

She was on the floor a moment not soon enough as the remnant of the building above her exploded in a rain of metal and imported kauri wood, her suit squealed through her skull as the anti-compression alarm blazed in a piercing arc, while outside the rain trodden battleground lit up in a blaze of hellstorm fire.

Protected from the worst after effects by her suits protective measures Audrey could find her feet after only a few moments; a minute or two at most, shrugging off broken earth and rock, rooting through a half torn down suite to find she still had a weapon, no ammo, no back up.

Bullets didn't bang against her position but the building was a pin cushion, so many weapons pounding outside that she couldn't decipher one hundred range bearing mutants from one thousand.

These mutants were far too well equipped she knew for them to hold her off, not one of them seemed to have anything below a paladin killing weapon even if they were only those light skinned monster sorts.

She peered over the blown out parapet and saw the rain drenched super mutants had entirely bogged down the approach with their sheer numbers, and Audrey realised she'd never saw so many mutants massed before.

It had been to their cost this battle; seen at the heart of their swarm even through their thick bodies was the behemoth which had only opted into the flight, eviscerated and mutated again by the fatboys power into a disembowelled caricature of its previous malice.

Audrey could laugh if her head didn't go thump with the crack of the bullets, would have clenched a fist and struck something in victory if the mutants simply couldn't walk over their destroyed brothers.

It didn't matter if she lifted her rifle again and shot that mutant which stalked forward howling and laughing; with such a big missile launcher in hand, but she tried anyway, limp as she realised her weapon was dry.

The mutant hefted the weapon and took aim at the lower base of their structure where she knew Evans and Mannone had been fighting the creatures off, and she could hear the monsters glee almost as it engulfed the entire floor.

She was downstairs as quickly as she could throw obstructions out of her way, abandoning her weapon in an almost daze. Carron and Audrey remained for the moment, the paladin in command using what weapon he could switch and lead with his ammunition handler, she watched mutely as the wastelander rushed to the room with an egg shaped mini nuke in hand.

Her resolve shrunk as quickly as it recovered, Anthony a second too late recoiled; the narrow protection afforded to him by the thin steel evaporated in an explosive burst of who-knows-what, crippling his protection and venting him over into the slick ground.

Carron cried out; struggled harder to fit his weapon with long spent magazines, the waster fell back as if struck, bullets clipped the inside of their refuge and bounced this way and that, driving him back into a storeroom where they'd piled their stores.

Audrey got inside past Carron without him noticing her prescience, past their breathless 'saviour' to find a well worn but functional ripper; an urban suppression riot shotgun fully loaded but unnoticed, a 10mm pistol with three magazines, some pre-packed foodstuffs and enough water to sate her thirst at least until she reached the relative civilisation of Megaton.

The wastelander didn't like it, saw her push through whatever outcropping of an exit they could make in an adjacent building that filled out under the stripped down ground floor through the utility, "Help me find the fatman!" he screamed at her, but instead she gripped him in one hand and the thick sack she'd deposited her survival goods into the other.

She didn't snap his neck but instead threw him face forward onto the unadorned floor of the room they entered, tossing her back to the side she grappled him high and strong against the wall behind.

"Tell me about the enclave; about what they did, what Lyon's said, what they want" she ordered with a hand firmly prepped against his windpipe, "and if I hear one word apart from any of that, I'll throttle you until you're as green as those bastards outside."

It was madness what she'd done; utter madness, abandoning her post and her brothers, the cause and the brotherhood-no actually, she was wrong on that last accusation. Lyon's had perverted them into some self sacrificing martyr army so that bastards like this one could scratch out a pathetic existence.

What would Mannone say about that; probably in pieces, being treated like _canned goods _in some disgusting conflict that they could have avoided if they'd just kept to the doctrine.

Audrey gleamed the information between heaving breaths and sputters of spit from the little shit, holding his throat just long enough to leave an impression.

Dropping him gasping for air, Audrey turned herself away, grabbed her bag and disappeared away from the battle just as another thundering eruption cast its glint on the outer rim of D.C.

Alex gasped as he saw the second eruption, realised Carron had got to the fat man and fired off a precious round, but getting up was harder than before, his legs were jelly and his throat burned. Perhaps it was for the best, because only a few moments later the room that held Carron was finally demolished by an explosive that crept through the gaping hole and into the floor supports above.

Four dead; one fled, his task to help save Carron's team had been as much as a failure as his attempt to save his father had been, and he could have been cracking the butt of his rifle against the control hubs window all over again for what it mattered.

Rooted for minutes Alex realised just how thick a mess he was in; unarmed, alone, tired and battered physically, he had his trusty but almost useless browning pistol and nothing else, save the remnant of a stocked room appearing in front of him like a cruel taunt.

How many mutants could they have killed in actuality? Thirty; forty? A behemoth which left another to shatter what resistance remained in the mall. The Sentinel had told him that twelve brotherhood members guarded the place in an enveloping position to help each other as they were set on by the entrenched mutants, but what happened when the still mobile majority of their charge burst through Georgetown and overwhelmed their triple point defence squad by squad?

A massacre just like this one he predicted, a proportion of the brotherhoods strength that would cripple them across D.C and leave purity in the hands of the men that killed James, a fitting way to end a terrible week.

He wondered how much distance Audrey had made between here and her objective, where he did not know. He realised it would be better to escape now in her wake and try to warn the Pride or the command if he ended up outside D.C and anywhere near the Citadel.

Anything inside the city and he'd be monster meat, there were so many dangers that a rifle and then some was the absolute minimum requirement.

Even a useless gesture as it was Alex pulled his pistol free and checked it for its viability, clean and loaded, and he realised that maybe he could shoot out a mutants eyes with his pip-boy's targeting system before the rest tore him up like all those gruesome remains he'd seen in the Jefferson.

It seemed like Morgan had picked her retreat carefully however, because from the first narrow leaky corridor he had to light with his pip-boy until the two bends he turned; he couldn't hear a snort or a roar from above.

Finding his way to an exit that was not so far but still unknown Alex switched off his pip-boy and kept his weapon ready, pushing at a wooden flap that lifted with a damnable creek into a building unlit and ominous; deathly silent inside with all the terror remaining at the non mentionable boundary of shuttered windows and barricaded doors.

Alex was careful at every step he took; cursing the creeks and whines as he ascended into the ground floor, hulking down as a nearby horde of super mutants discharged more of their rifles, which could have been anything from a new attack, defence or yulp of victory.

If even one of those mutants wandered by and caught a second glance he'd be dead, so he resolved not to take the chance by reversing his plan and ascending the stairs, creek-crack-creek-crack, his feet masked by the discharging outside.

Getting to the relative safety he checked one barely touched but dilapidated room before stalking across the hall and finding another.

Inside he found two black clad men peering out at the shadowy night that intertwined with the lighting of a muzzle flash, "Those mutants are really happy to have killed some tin men" one of the men said, where Alex could guess he'd saw the fight from the house that could have only been a few hundred yards down the street.

"The mutants are always happy when guts are on offer" his partner remarked, and Alex was startled that he knew his voice, but from where…

"Too bad Joaquin and Peter aren't here, those guys love to see the brotherhood go down" Alex raised his pistol and clocked back the hammer in a useless gesture save for getting their attention, "Turn around Calvin, and make sure you don't try anything." Time froze for a moment as the men realised they weren't alone, stiffening as their hands itched towards the weapons leaning against a still glassed window out of reflex.

Calvin's partner jerked to the floor body twisting like a snake; his hand turning across his chest to the trigger of a hold out pistol strapped but available.

Alex fired three hammering shots into the man's chest piece; unprotected side _gut_ and face, turning his weapon on Calvin who had stuttered back in surprise, "Don't" he warned while casting a critical eye to the second employee of Talon company he'd now killed.

How many was that, at least four confirmed dead men, no mutant blood or radiation having sent them mad, "You just killed us both buddy, you think those green bastards outside are going to let that go?" Alex gave a step forward pistol primed in hand, it would be easy to make it a third.

"So you're part of the group trying to fight the brotherhood" he observed, noting the quality of the weapons the two men had brought with them for what had to be a scouting expedition, FN FALs with bullets nearby that had the accusatory _spiked_ armour piercing jackets; fragmentation grenades and enough ammo for another pair.

"How the hell did you get in here?" Calvin asked through gritted teeth, annoyed at being jumped more than his companion who spilled out onto the floor without so much as a whimper, Alex had caught him well with that third bullet, Gunney would have been so proud if he wasn't dead.

"That doesn't matter, all that matters is how me and you get out of here alive" Alex replied to the man's suddenly aware eyes, "Yes you heard me right, you get a second-second chance provided you lead me out of Georgetown. There are more mutants on their way, and I need to let the brotherhood know what happened here." Not to mention finding out just what happened to the pride.

Calvin laughed lightly which was brave he thought, despite knowing that he probably wouldn't shoot him in cold blood, he hadn't before even when the mercenary and sometimes hired murderer had shot Gunney in the gut.

Apparently there was little difference to Talon company anyway, "You still don't know what's happening here kid, the mutants aren't the only people out for brotherhood blood" Alex primed him for an answer with a warning shot over his shoulder, startling Calvin and causing him to shoot a look at where the mutants had formed worryingly.

"Those mutants will probably come see what that was, so I'd talk" Calvin looked reticent so Alex emptied another bullet into the floor making the man jump, "Talk!" he ordered, beginning to worry himself that the mutants would cotton on, if they could decipher his bullets under their own.

"Those mutants are fucking idiots" Calvin droned, possibly angry that they hadn't came by to unsettle his vault adversary as much as he felt, "You'll probably be a good soldier and only put on into my leg; I know what you are, some simpering moralist, so I'll tell you what you'll figure out just by looking out a window. Those mutants are just a patsy; a big ugly destructive one at that, but a patsy all the same. Talon Company is preparing to flush those sword and steel fucks straight out of the mall and back across the Potomac, we've been shadowing them for days-first time we actually had men rooting for them" Alex's first thought was why, he never saw the appeal of the mall, after all it just a husk of half memorable relics and throw backs to a pre-war government that meant nothing to anyone.

"Why does Talon Company care about the wreckage of the old world? Surely the ghouls stripped anything of value years ago?" Alex half asked half reasoned, at least the brotherhood professed to fight in the hope of inspiring popular war on the mutants and to keep the D.C ruins relatively free to move in.

Calvin give him a shit eating grin that reminded him so much of Butch De Loria, "Because the biggest contract we've ever had asked for it, that's why" he even had the same stupid haircut, minus the product, "The chief in Tenpenny was offering fifteen hundred caps for your head on a spike as a welcome sight, this deal to oust the Brotherhood makes that look like an insult"

"Who was it?" Alex pried but Calvin only responded with a snort, "I'll really tell you that huh, even if I knew? I'm just grunt shit remember. Whatever happened to that lump of meat you walked with, not around to hold your hand?" Alex somehow resisted the urge to shoot him, instead motioning to the door with his pistol, move" he ordered, arcing himself around the mercenary as he stalked forward.

He picked up one of the rifles and checked it for usage, good condition and well stocked with ammunition, he might have just had some luck.

However, as if on cue, a blaring roar erupted outside in the way of every side of the building it seemed, something louder and heavier dropping nearby that couldn't have been a conventional weapon he'd ever felt.

Calvin jolted forward towards the stairs and Alex snapping his weapon up to catch him did nothing more than pierce the fragile doorframe, "Fuck!" he swore as the man threw himself down the last six stairs and fled as Alex bore his rifle down the flight a moment later.

He couldn't follow him not knowing what he had down stairs; all it took was for Calvin to hide behind a doorway with any weapon they'd kept down there for safety or even out of forgetfulness. Alex remembered enough times in which someone had left a 'present' in the toilet of a remnant home, instead he kept his weapon ready and checked outside for what had occurred.

The entire street; all of Georgetown was filled with flashing weapons and explosions, mutants previously at the ascendency fired wildly around them, even _upwards_ into the air, why he wondered? And for a moment was blank until he realised-no, not here; surely they'd not be found here?

A flash of glinting steel flashed in his vision just above street level, he realised it as quickly as the mutants did, that being when the heavy pound bomb detonated in their midst.

Alex tried to wipe the blood free over his eye; holding his sleeve parallel while he held his rifle numbly against the doorway in case Calvin returned, his ears pounded and flushed with blood as the street outside was littered with mutant flesh, torn steel, shattered chassis's and whatever other remnants of the pre-war world that had remained.

This was worth some med-x and more than a few aspirin he agreed with the mutants wailing outside, hearing them through a tin of saturated vault issue 'party chips' it seemed like. It looked to have gotten more than a dozen at least; injured at least three times that number critically and superficially alike, fat legs and thick arms still clutching handles were so numerous that you could come by quote a collection.

It wasn't over by any estimation; not from the sounds near and echoing in the far landscape, horrible weapons that banged with a tremor even to his reduced hearing capability, the street lit up nearby to both sides as the mutants turned their weapons on two oncoming forces.

Where they being flanked both sides by a singular force he wondered, almost amazed, but afraid that it was the black masks and their deadly plasma weapons making another mark on the wastelands.

He sensed the footfall behind him too late-turned with his weapon locked to deliver a butt strike to the waiting chin behind, had his arm caught in a vice grip and used as leverage to toss him like a ragdoll into the bare wall.

That was the second time he'd been tossed around like a limp pretty me up dolls, but he froze quicker this time around as he found an AEP7 laser pistol levelled squarely at his face. Looking up he saw the impersonal visage that accompanied every power suit; black gazing visor and motionless features.

Thankfully this one was his colour and his kind of run down, "Kodiak?" he asked noticing the snarling and now very much extinct beast across his left pauldron, "You're too easy kid" the man admonished seriously, helping Alex up effortlessly and handing his new found weapon back to him.

Kodiak turned to the window and looked over the carnage raging outside as the mutants fought bitterly and hard against the onslaught, with their miniguns spewing and hard heads rushing into oncoming fire as if it was the acidic rains that had soaked the city at the onset of the night.

"You see that out there?" Kodiak asked as he holstered his pistol and heaved up his super sledge, resting it under his chin. "The pride on one side and Talon Company on the other, fighting just for the ability to fight each other, madness really. But the Sentinel wasn't going to sit and let those two slug it out. Better to put a foot in while they were distracted-gives Talon Company time to fret, and the pride time to get inside their positions and dole out some retribution long coming." Kodiak looked over at the small weapon cache and took note of the ammunition available for the other discarded rifle lying at his feet.

The man barely flinched as a bullet shattered the window and grazed his helmet, "Those mutants always forget to aim" he contemptfully razed a gauntleted finger before snatching up the weapon, going to the floor beside to attach the clips to inbuilt magazine sinks at the waist of his power suit.

"You need a magazine you let me know, now let's get outside and in behind those pricks" Briskly Kodiak moved by the door and Alex followed almost like a subordinate, before he remembered just how they were in this mess in the first place.

"Hey wait! Just what took you guys so song? we were expecting you here before the son went down" he half asked half accused, to which Kodiak stopped; bumped him backwards and turned, "Didn't you hear me? Talon Company; about two platoons worth if you understand the old world military speak, coming down on us and the mutants together" Alex did, it meant that anything between one hundred or half that number of Talon Company were pouring over this area, "That big hole out there was created by a vertibird if you didn't already guess, which means we're in the largest engagement the D.C ruins has seen for years" Kodiak gave him space again and approached a window where he'd slammed his bulk against to enter through, "You haven't got the armour on kid so I'll understand if you want to sit this out. But I'm going to give these Talon scum something to smart over. Follow if you want kid." Kodiak was out the door and rushing off into the dark like a radroach after sugar, and Alex couldn't force himself to stay safe power armour or not.

Outside the entire world was different; every piece of rubble and wreckage became a suspicion and threat, every pounding noise a startling revelation of how venerable he remained rushing across the torn up street to the opposing side.

Tucking in behind Kodiak and wiping down his eye Alex noticed that the man gave an 'ok' sign with his sheathed fingers, causing two masses of dull grey steel to form out of the near darkness and rush to their approach.

"What's the news" Kodiak asked without aid of whatever interior transceiver they had use off, as Alex noted both men held weapons fit to turn the mutants to dust, those laser rifles Alex had heard called 'tri-beam disintegrators'.

"Glades notching so many we might just have to buy him a beer for once" Vargas remarked in his distinct sour tone, "The mutants appear low on ammunition and those Talon Company we ran into fled and left their _wares_ behind. Overlord Artemis is bringing up the supplies and marshalling our support for a flanking assault." Kodiak let a gloriously rugged woof free leaving Alex in wonderment as to where he'd heard the sound, before that clobbering hand was up in the air to motion forward for an advance.

They came across the black garbed Talon Company not more than one hundred yards in front who were advancing on the mutants by now retreating force, leading Kodiak to turn and almost cram him inside a doorway before he took a knee himself.

"Give them enough rope to hang themselves with" the man whispered as loud as he dared as Vargas and the third member of the pride slunk across the road behind a dumpster and overturned bus stop, quiet as a mouse as he moved in his bulky suit compared to Vargas Alex knew it had to be Gallows.

One of the men in front of them motioned for others filing in behind him to turn the street and attempt to outflank the mutants, putting his head up away from the immediate back and forth to catch sight of four figures emplaced and staring down at his comrades in full firing superiority.

Vargas as the lead didn't need to give the order and none of them waited for it; Alex himself shooting smartly beyond the immediate target towards a onrushing man that was caught in a mist of his own blood as he tapped the selective fire trigger three times in succession, Kodiak doing the same as Vargas and Gallows sent the first man billowing away into the night sky in the brutally beautiful way only an energy weapon could achieve.

He didn't have their night vision or thermal but Alex fired as well as able; catching men on their armour and out for all that it mattered against the rounds Calvin had provided. He tucked himself away from the fire; wondered if the man was in their ranks before reloading his weapon and realising it was best if he wasn't by the bodies that began to litter the cracked sideways and blast scored roadways.

It was maybe seven bodies on the ground riddled or drifting away before the company men lost their nerve and retreated to relative safety, but Kodiak fixed that by hammering forward and finding an available doorway to smash through and shout for them to get inside.

"Find a window and let's get these bastards" he ordered even to Vargas who didn't let rank get in his way, taking time to throw three magazines to Alex where he'd slipped them behind his waist.

"One man fires the other reloads his weapon, you're up first kid" Vargas ordered as he burst up the stairs as Gallows cracked away the panes of a sweeping window that looked across the depths of the Talon controlled territory, an area not so badly hit as the Brotherhood and mutants had stood and fought.

Alex found himself switching his weapon to fully automatic as he noticed the numbers of the mercenaries clogging the street in a single firing lane which could have been turned to them just as easily. The blitz of his weapon combined with that below unsettled the men and down they went; one-two-three before they knew they were set upon again, one-two-three again as Vargas and Kodiak took their turns.

The kid from vault 101 was as up to his ankles in blood as the brotherhood fighters were after he'd emptied his last clip and took a knee away from the panicked return fire from the Talon fighters, blunted for the moment and retreating behind their lines after more bodies littered the floor that he could count without some time and a good source of light.

"They always run from lasers" Vargas mentioned almost wistfully as he watched the rear guard of the company melt away into the night, "Our armour by design reduces the effects but that same armour you're wearing just loves to cook them in their own juice. It'll teach those bastards to try and mess with the Brotherhood."

Downstairs Kodiak seemed to agree as he hollered again in some maddening version of restrained bloodlust.

"We've swept the deck, now it's time to mop the floor" Vargas said in his own brand dry humour, "We've got probably enough to link up ammo wise, so make sure you stay behind us. Though if you're brave enough to root through packs and pockets you could probably find one of the men out there amenable to handing over some ammo" his suggestion was as morbid as it was practical Alex thought, nothing he wasn't too use to.

Maybe the reality of the carnage he just caused would sink in when he saw the men he'd helped kill-if not annihilate up close, but he'd seen bodies before of the bad men of the wastelands and it never did seem to go towards guilt.

Must be the murderer inside every good wastelander he thought as Vargas led them down and out of the long since stripped house, into the street where the firing down the parallel street had lessened to some intermittent burst fire and the _tist!_ sound of what had to be the prides energy weapons.

When they rearmed their weapons and Alex got ready to carry out his gruesome search Vargas stopped them with an upraised hand, holding it firmly in place while his head cocked strangely for a long drawn moment.

"You hear that" Kodiak asked out loud even if he was privy to the personal comms of the pride, "those motherfuckers" he swore another moment later, adding to the strangeness by Gallows seeming bewilderment as he shook his head.

Vargas stepped forward and began turning the corner with his weapon ready, "Forget the mercs kid, just keep behind us" he tightly ordered as Kodiak and Gallows followed without a word, "What's wrong?" Alex found him unable to stop himself asking, and it was Gallows who stopped his cautious movement forward to say "The Enclave have hacked our local communications, they're threatening to send in a vertibird squad to strafe us with a few mini nukes if we enter the mall." Shocked Alex replied dumbly with a nod and went forward behind the trio, who were hasty in their movement as he'd ever seen them.

"Only a few mutants left" Kodiak observed with Vargas and Gallows branching out to take a different position in the street, and Alex could see faintly the outline of so many hulking frames lying riddled and potch marked with gaping wounds overwhelming the number that were doing the last thing he expected to see, super mutants turning their backs on a battle and retreating over the winding slope towards the mall battleground.

"Glade; Colvin, get up there and thin them out" The sentinel, from the number of steel clad warriors ordered it regardless of the fatalities they all began to wade through, Alex having to step through the bodies while the pride crunched their boots over them carelessly.

"This is the biggest pile of dead mutants I've seen since 65" the oldest of the pride mentioned in passing the wallowing crater filled with dark red _slush_, directly where the behemoth had fell; now only seen in a ten foot long stripped to the bone arm, and two unmistakeably mutated feet.

"I think that's the funniest thing I've ever seen" Alex couldn't help saying suddenly as he looked at the oversized armoured _booties_, thinking on the mirth as something James would have described as sociopathic.

"Once you've seen a mutant fall off a five story building; flip twice and then be impaled on a garden fence nothing else really lives up" Kodiak mentioned from where he was rooting through the larger and more armoured corpses, heaving up their miniguns and manually operating the rotors, or chuckling as he found a mutant whose flamer had fallen into bad repair and had ignited him to leave a far too well cooked; supersized iguana-on-a-stick.

"I don't even know how I can laugh, Carron and his team are buried in there" Alex motioned to the building that was now a festering mess of snapped supports and ill leaning steel frames.

"You aren't the first man who laughs after a fire fight, or at inappropriate times" the Sentinel approached him, towering at least a head above in her featureless power armour, "Five dead Brotherhood, hardly seems like it was worth even twice this numbers of muties"

"Four" Alex corrected, suddenly feeling pensive at telling them about Morgan, "Knight Morgan didn't stay the entire fight, she fled before the mutants rocketed Carron's position" Kodiak; Vargas, the Sentinel and the other brotherhood members fanning out around the area turned on him immediately, "What? What do you mean" Vargas asked on the approach, "No Brotherhood member flees the battle, how do you know?"

Feeling defensive Alex put his hands up palm out having shouldered his rifle, "She left during the battle; got hit early on by a missile explosion we thought, just as Paladin Anthony slung the mini nuke. Things got heavy and next thing I know Anthony's going over the side and Morgan's behind us, grabbing for some supplies and out the escape" he explained to an increasingly uncomfortable pride, with Kodiak clenching his thick fists and Vargas likewise. "She grabbed me next-the second time she had tried to actually, started to threaten to kill me if I didn't let her know everything I knew about the enclave-

"The enclave, how did she know about them?" the Sentinel asked by what he imagined were narrowed eyes, "I might have let it slip the first time she tried to attack me, she knows that your father was intending to fight them." The Sentinel shook her head still helmeted before reaching up, depressing the locking system and freeing her sweat soaked face, dropping her helmet she ran a hand through her flat blonde locks.

"Morgan's sister is in the outcasts, the bastards who betrayed us and left D.C" she explained to an already knowing Alex, save for the vehement nature of her usual temperate voice. "I never thought she would just turn tail and run out on her brothers…but I suppose she finally snapped" letting out a long draining breath, Alex realised finally that Morgan wouldn't just be turning mercenary on renegade.

"We can't let Casdin get wind of these enclave bastards" Vargas urgently prodded the Sentinel who seemed at a momentary loss, "What do you suggest?" she asked tiredly, but Vargas wasn't having that, "You know exactly what has to be done Sarah" he used her name Alex was sure for the first time that any of them had in his prescience at least.

"She can't have got that far" Kodiak insisted from where he began to pick at ammo packs and explosive slings with a few more Brotherhood members who'd moved into the massing of mutant dead, who had began to release themselves and throw up a terrible stink Alex found disgustingly, but another member turned his head sharply at the exchange.

"You're talking about killing her? A fellow brother" the voice asked harshly, dropping a few rifles he'd been hauling together towards some unrolled packaging sacks the Brotherhood had brought, "A fellow brother gunned down like some rotter or a slaver?" Vargas turned on the man before the Sentinel could react "What do you think we are Artemis, watch how you speak" the man did not.

"I'll speak as I'm able Vargas, maybe you'll remember that next time I have to clean up behind you in one of these _dirty battles_" Artemis bitterly replied pulling free his own helmet, allowing Alex to realise he was one of the shallow featured men who has stood to Rufio's defence in the Citadel debate.

"Enough; no fighting between brothers" the Sentinel commanded sternly, not half as able to keep her temper as she'd been minutes ago "I don't want Morgan to die; but I can't just let her betray the enclave prescience to the outcasts. If they hear of it they might just think about trying to ally themselves along with the black masks." Artemis gave a curt nod in apology "What do you suggest Sentinel?" he asked while returning half his attention to gathering up weapons, something the remaining pride members save the Sentinel; Kodiak and Vargas had started to do.

Alex sheepishly joined them as he followed the conversation, rooting through some gruesomely ravaged super mutants; finding a well maintained guard shotgun, two R91's, a manically designed spiked long arm, while the Sentinel resumed some sense of control to the deteriorating situation.

"The enclave managed to drop a passing salvo into the mutants that created a bigger hole that our fat boy's could, and my father gave strict orders not to engage them" she informed them without attempting to filter her bitterness, and not one man would have been happy Alex could guess with certainty.

"We've got to haul these supplies back; find our Brothers bodies or at least their tags, send a team out to find Morgan is we can" Not trekking further into the D.C ruins to help their brothers had to be a slap in the face of each of them there until she continued, "Gallows, Vargas, get yourself down to your undersuits; rearm and get ready to move out." Artemis was about to interject when the Sentinel's raised palm stalled him, "You two are moving into the ruins quietly, you're going to find out what's happened at the monument and make sure you square the information to the Citadel that our communications have been compromised, _discreetly._"

"What about Morgan?" the most errant of them inquired.

"You'll be going after her with me Artemis, along with Dusk; Glade and Kodiak" The Sentinel said calming Artemis but causing Alex to drop what he was doing, "What about me?" She turned her cool olive eyes on him.

"You've done what you said you'd do; and we're all thankful for that" _Despite Carron's team getting decimated anyway_ "But you'd only slow Gallows and Vargas down; most of the brotherhood can't say any better-

"But I was the one who let Morgan know about the enclave" he protested fiercer than he felt, "I should help track her down. Besides I know the area outside the wastelands-

"You've been out here for a few weeks" she cut in and reminded him, gently if it mattered. "This is brotherhood business, and we can only take care of it by our leave" feeling that it was the end of any consideration Alex felt his energy sapped, aware at how utterly meaningless his efforts-all of them from leaving the vault had been.

He could have been overreacting but he didn't care, all he could think was how his father had gotten so far without; came so close to achieving the noblest thing he could have ever conceived, something that changed the fundamental way in which Alex perceived him, what the wasteland could have been, to die at the hands of some butcher in colonel stripes.

Gunney had been killed along with him; Indri too for all he knew, the bastards didn't leave any alive as he'd seen. It left him a shack in Megaton and a sure to be slow death scratching out a wastelander living or whatever pity the Brotherhood felt on him to leave him some inclusion towards project purity.

To break up his pitiful melancholy a brotherhood knight was required, marching up to them as a slight sliver of steel at first, blotted out shoulder to feet by a man he was hauling with him in obvious protest.

"Brother Petrayas you've found us a friend?" Artemis wryly asked as the man was shuffled forward, very much distressed looking under his harsh wounded skin and heavy brow, he'd once heard it described as how a born ghoul would look.

"Talon company eh?" Artemis continued acting supremely disappointed, turning away. "Execute him" he carelessly ordered with a flippant wave of the hand, causing the knight to pull free a laser pistol at his waist causing the man, while Calvin as it happened to wriggle and squirm.

"Wait-wait! No come on, not with one of those fucking pistols, I heard they burn you up for minutes" he pleaded suddenly aware of his sudden oncoming fate, spotting Alex he went into overdrive "Vault kid, come on don't let these bowl heads do this! I've heard about you on the radio, the good fight and all that shit…please!" Forced down on his knees he was practically sobbing while Pepraya's held his pistol ready.

Artemis turned to the Sentinel with the full amount of humour Alex expected him to be able to manage, "What do you think Sentinel? Let him go out of the kindness of our hearts?" Calvin's eyes met the Sentinel's as she signed his fate with a 'slitting' motion across her own neck.

"No no look! I know things you'll want to know" he protested so manically that Alex thought he might cry, tragic in the fact that it brought not one person here close to feeling even a trace of sympathy for him.

"Like?" was the simple question, causing Calvin to fret and blubber again.

"I know that Talon got a contract to go after the brotherhood at the mall, knock you out of the fight and help clear the way towards the capitol building" Immediately interested the Sentinel approached, and Alex couldn't help but dab his eye that ran again while listening in. "Big money; big big money, two thousand caps per man, every gun in the outer wastelands knows about it" That was _alarming_ Alex could tell.

"Who is the contractor" she asked to what Alex thought was immediately a nothing question, who had those sort of resources.

"Look I can tell you details; men and teams who are coming in to take it up" Calvin offered oh so helpfully, before turning to Alex and levelling his pitiful gaze on him.

"I can tell you everything you want to know about how the companies going to try and wipe you out, maybe let you know how for. And I can definitely tell you vault boy, where your little girlfriend-Indri is, all alive and well, for now."


	3. Chapter 3

Henry woke with a startle, immediately aware that he was in trouble, bound and groggy against the pulsing wound across the rear of his scalp, his shirt torn and his pants still unbuckled in the mad frenzy that had preceded the state he found himself in.

The mercenary bitch had turned herself into a corpse without knowing it, knocking him out and leaving him alive instead of killing him while she had the chance. Thankfully his eyes quickly adjusted to the low light of his own apartment, the safe behind the epic portrait of some old world battleground, Gettysburg it had been known-was untouched.

What had she been came here for he wondered through the agitating efforts of trying to reach the slip blade he always kept on the underside of his wrist brace, an ornate piece stolen from a mad raider he'd been rescued from by Gustavo.

He'd have to let the chief know that the bitch was probably still in the tower with the rest of her crew…

Her crew! Christ forgotten they were a hard looking bunch, rough edged and deadly as a 308 between the eyes, he'd been stupid to think they'd delivered the vault kid just like that.

His hands were freed by his rhythmic sawing in a few tense minutes; his feet after in moments, suddenly incensed at that fool thinking he could come to his Henry's own home and try something, then he was going for his pistol-unloaded save for the one pristine 10mm bullet he kept always on the inside roof of his bedside cabinet.

Feeding it into his pistol Henry near ripped his handle free of the door to access the outer hallway of Tenpenny's most premier accommodations, realising immediately that the guard stationed near the old man's was no longer present and had been replaced by a red smear on the now mostly pristine lavender felt walls, distinct only to his keen scrutiny.

He could have immediately checked inside for the outgoing chief; too slowly outgoing by his estimation, but instead chose not to risk something so overtly dangerous. He made for the lifts instead to find Gustavo and his security team, because after all, if someone had decided to use the vault dweller and his baser desires against the tower, then someone would have to stay around to lead them towards civilisation.

It had all been going so well, the thought drummed itself through his head as he depressed the ground floor button on the gleaming innards of the elevator system. They'd had a minor setback in Megaton, where the vault brat had went against all sense of propriety and attempted to save the lice ridden no hope _almost _tribals inside, further still when he'd managed with the help of some others to kill a passing team of Talon mercenaries Henry had set upon him when he himself had been forcibly ejected from the squalidness that was the 'bomb town'.

It had been always a perfect sequence of events since then however, and Megaton had turned out to be a small matter. Only three weeks ago the senior most captain to commander Jabsco of the company had approached him in a deal worth thousands of caps; _thousands _in an amount that would dwarf his own small fortune for a simple logistical demand on the commanders part.

It had started by allowing Talon Company mercenaries to use unused suites in the tower for ranging missions, against the so called 'outcast' brotherhood members who were uncomfortably close to the tower in every approach he'd expected.

A week later and the mercenaries were arriving in droves larger than he'd ever seen, buying up goods and select 'services' offered by the towers more appealing members, all of them eventually marching away from the outcast positions towards the D.C ruins in some form of assault that he'd be loath not to take advantage off.

It had been completed by the final payment of his rather enjoyable levy for services rendered, the tower happy and prosperous if somewhat under supplied, and a final-more appealing offer to himself and Mr Tenpenny from a black garbed military man in some strange cut of uniform he'd never quite seen before.

'We hear you're a nice clean blooded man Mr Burke' he'd been complimented on the first meeting with the stern faced fellow, who'd been complimented himself with the darkness in his silver pupils that gave a somewhat chilling property to him, 'We have requirements of men who have the abilities and motivation to bring this land back from the anarchy and violence that had inhabited it for so long. We hope we can count on your support-in times to come.'

They could he told them, in no uncertain terms, he'd offered captain 'Lew' an appealing suite below his own in an expansive level mostly uninhabited by residents.

That all evaporated the instant he opened the lift to the elevated lift entrance, to find a battlefield in the towers sweeping ground floor that had shredded every form of relaxation and atmosphere that the place once personified.

The walls were scored black; the lamps and hanging lights shattered to flickering bulbs, tables were ripped apart by bursts of automatic fire, bodies riddled and scorched streamed blood across the polished gold oak flooring.

Burke heard the _sleck sleck sleck _of R91's traded with the _twfst twfst _of what had to be an energy weapons; ducked as a ripple of blind fire cracked against the wall above the elevator. Tucking himself against the gap he shouted into the frenzy "Gustavo! It's Mr Burke, what's going on?!" but another hail greeted him before he decided to snap close the elevator doors and plot his next action.

Return to his suite and pull his savings, use the fire escape and hope he wasn't found by whoever had attacked? Was it these new military types who'd invaded and used his favour to try and overthrow the security team, Lew had been on the ground floor and had planned to stay there he'd told Burke, was it something else entirely he couldn't yet gleam?

A grainy discharge struck the outer door and his hand went swift to the number where the security detail resided on, two below himself and Alistair, it had to be one of the safer places in the towers now that the ground floor and adjacent security room where compromised, unable to help finding the idea of fleeing so easily too sour a taste in his mouth.

Pistol ready but feeling insecure Henry kept himself to the wall as much as was allowed by his slight form and wide lift, thankful to find the quiet of a corridor unmolested by the violence at the base of the building.

Lightly making his way forward Burke caught a crack in one door; Joaquin's, one of the talon mercenaries he'd hired after the youth had came to the tower weak and battered by a capture mission gone wrong near Evergreen Mills.

Cracking the door inch by inch he saw three figures immediately recognizable; in the corner was Elsa the boy's sister; young and supple, bright eyed and beautiful, who was racked with what looked like panic by her balled fists and rapidly reddening eyes. Joaquin was hunched over the third form, slender himself but with some noticeable _meat_ to add to his large frame, the dusky hands of the man gripped roughly against the face of 'Burke's bitch'.

She was a cute little number; not as pleasant on the eye given her olive greens were now unseen under two swollen eyes, but Burke could remember the pearly smile that was so unnatural even in their little part of civilisation, with her womanly frame that he'd noticed even under her thick leathers and bulky underclothes.

He'd have preferred the gorgeous bloom of Elsa with her vigour any night or any morning but Ramona had been a delight, until the moment where she played with his neck lightly before clubbing him over the head _hard_.

"Mr Burke" Elsa breathed in sudden alarm as he entered the room, immediately aware that everything that had been conspired against her wishes in Megaton was about to come full circle and land her and Joaquin in further trouble, making it every part involved.

She inched closer to the wall as Joaquin turned and gave him a worry filled gaze that had turned from a scorn at his sudden approach, _the boy idolizes me_ Burke knew smug as it was to consider.

"Sir, I caught her trying to roast Elsa while I was in showering myself down" he explained as an indication to his unruly black locks and sweaty brow, if not obvious for his half upturned undershirt and un-tucked pants, "She's working with the brotherhood sir, they tried to trick you like you tricked them."

Burke felt as if he'd been slapped right across the mouth, with the metallic taste of blood there with him biting his tongue in surprise, an old habit from his childhood days.

"The _brotherhood_, here?" he hissed while striding forward to get over the girl Romona, barely able to stop him whipping his gun around and beating her until she was a pulp, Elsa unconsciously tensed as she realised the woman was already battered and at their mercy, Joaquin had been as vicious as any other man she'd seen in his own interrogation.

"Why are the brotherhood here?" he asked as tight he was coiled, "Why!" he was down over her balling his fists and then striking them into her flesh, eliciting almost pleasure inducing groans off pain from her as he struck once-twice-three times in a barrage.

"Stop" Elsa pleaded but Burke paid her no mind, putting down his weapon and forcing the elder woman to see the pick of his steel now in hand, "Tell me or I start making you a lot less easy on the eye my darling" it didn't hurt that the point of his steel was getting very close to her left pupil-

"Wait! Mr Burke-I'll tell you, I'll tell you" Elsa persisted in a drastic removal of any reserve she held, _like a wilting flower_ he thought even under the stress of the situation, "Yes my girl?" he asked while not moving a hair or an inch away from Ramona for emphasis of his point, only her eyes showing any indication of understanding.

She explained it through half truths and barely contained dread Burke could see, and it was as fine a tale as could be spun by any of the mad stories he'd heard Alistair tell him in those stupors of his.

It started with Burke's own move; spreading it far and wide that he'd captured the vault dwellers friend, Elsa herself by _enslaving_ her own brother after Joaquin's failure to capture him on a previous occasion of chance. Really it had been Joaquin's own idea, a dastardly one to use something of Tenpenny's own vernacular; giving himself as the 'victim'. So that his sister would go along and send for the vault dweller, who Burke had heard word of through his newest and best ally, the only thing shocking Burke being just how quickly it had taken.

An oversight on his behalf, given how quickly he was taken with the formerly alluring mercenary squirming below him semi-conscious, and the beaten up state of his object of distain had been.

'You'll suffer enough to make that lip of your looks like a pleasantry' Burke had promised to the swollen faced youngster, now he felt he should have just stopped gloating and shot the bastard, all the while Elsa had stood unspeaking to the reversal of treachery she'd been forced to adopt, still culled by Alex's friend Jericho executing two of the men sent with her on her seeming fool's errand.

She'd been duped, his team guarding her had been also; overpowered in a twist of fate by a squad of power armoured brotherhood who he had gained in friendship just as they attempted to wrestle him out past the gate.

Elsa had no idea how he had gained such powerful friends other than guessing he'd offered something only a vault dweller could, had he stolen something from the power armoured soldiers in the death masks? One of those plasma rifles she'd seen cut melt a secured permalock in the Jefferson while she'd hid like the days gone by in her Usaria homestead.

She hadn't got the chance to ask him before Burns had whipped him across the face with his heavy handled revolver as Elsa had got Alex's guard down, trying to keep up her disgusting façade of relief at seeing him alive, she hadn't when he'd turned on her with all the betrayal she thought he'd muster as things went against her.

She had to return with her brother home, it was the reason why she'd accompanied Alex and Gunney out into the wastes, "Alexander and the brotherhood threatened they'd kill your man, Burns the one who they put into some sort of induced coma" she got around to saying after the shock wore of his face, she'd thought she was so strong like her grand mother Teresa, but she felt more and more pitiful as she explained herself to this _monster_.

"They wouldn't tell me anything about their plan, only that they were going to use Burns to get inside to find out what you knew about the Talon Company and some other group, I think they were called…the enclave." Burke eased his hand but realised the girl knew far too little to get anything less than a severe-very severe reprimand for this disaster.

If she wasn't so natural and unique to find even in a tower full of beautiful whores Burke would have shot her right then, and her brother for being so stupid to get them into this mess, that brat from the vault too keen and quick for these two doltish tribals.

How hadn't he seen it?

"So I now know that the brotherhood were on to my plan, that they know I've been working for a group I didn't even know the name off…" Burke gave his volunteer hostage an almost hateful glare "and now they are here and for all we know have killed Gustavo and all his men?"

"There were only a few of them in power armour" Elsa defended herself somewhat, as if it would matter if Gustavo and his men hadn't had the weapons ready to deal with those sorts of enemies. Burke tightened his hand around the throat of the woman beneath him and watched her begin to gain and squirm fiercely under him, he'd make sure this one wouldn't be around to gloat over him.

Feeling her arms tremble Elsa looked to Joaquin to mouth some form of protest, but she saw that her brother so _strong _and _proud _like their father stood watching almost transfixed, and not appalled. She realised he'd changed so much in that instant to become almost-almost unrecognizable as the proud and stubborn boy she'd cried over the day he'd snuck out from their little enclosure.

She was moving forward even as Joaquin's eyes protested before Burke went any further until a bullet snapped them all towards the doorway he'd left swung open, standing there with the hammer drawn back on a 10mm pistol was Alex.

The shot had been buried just over Burke's shoulder into a mantelpiece at the far end of the room, cracked now over a long since useless electric fireplace and settling Burke in a tense pause.

Composed behind his now swollen and _cut_ face; his slit lip, welted left cheek and thickly split right eye, the vault kid she'd met just weeks ago looked aged by years, his worn colourless fatigues dirty and stained over a wraith like figure, that led her to question that it had been days rather than years, how could it have just been days?

"Just give me a reason to kill you Burke" Alex said to the back of a man whose face scrunched up in barely contained rage, so palpable that Mr Burke _growled_ from his place on the floor.

"You are a fool boy, surrounding yourself with idiotic idealists and knuckle dragging wasters" Burke replied snidely, still stiff and coiled with his hands in warning over the woman's throat that Elsa knew Alex trusted enough to help him outwit Tenpenny's mastermind.

Taking steps towards Elsa rather than Joaquin, Alex caught sight of Ramona's battered face and immediately volleyed a curse towards them, her the most cutting, "Here you are Elsa with your tribal _love_; standing by with your scumbag brother while this disgusting piece of trash strangles a defenceless woman." Joaquin stiffened as he met Alex's accusatory gaze, didn't dare move even as he was insulted in a way that made his hands tremble.

"Your father would be ashamed of you" Alex knew it was effective, saw the dark hollows that served as the man's eyes narrow into pearly slits, "He saved your family; saved you, fought all those years as long and hard as they were and for what? Just so you could run off and become a hired _murderer_". It gave Alex a perverse sense of pleasure to see Elsa's brother shake in that way only a partially tribal type could, all righteous indignation and fury, but he couldn't help the feeling of satisfaction as he was able to tear Joaquin down with his words if not the heel of his pistol.

"Fuck you…" Joaquin breathed in response, angry to the point of losing any reason beyond the idea of getting a chance to beat the vault kid's brains across the floor with Ramona's for good measure.

How could someone come from a family like that which Alex had witnessed in the almost peaceful enclosure; honour bound and helpful if not secretive and reclusive, to work with Burke, when Elsa had been everything you could expect, from a girl of good if not righteous upbringing, Joaquin being the very worst.

It only made it hurt further that Elsa who'd stood by him the longest save Gunney, who was now his only real friend, or have been in the wastelands, was ready to have him sent to be butchered for Burke's amusement to save her brothers scaly skin.

'How can't you understand, after all the things you went for to find your father' She half asked; half accused him when he had her along with Burke's remaining man thrown in the Megaton jail house the night before they'd hatched a plan to infiltrate the tower, 'My father wasn't a murderer' he'd responded as coldly as his reserve had permitted.

"Stand up Burke and get against the wall" Elsa saw her brother waiting to pounce as Alex kept his weapon on Joaquin even while he ordered Burke up, fear welling in her chest as she thought the naïve; borderline ridiculous vault boy she'd met just weeks ago looked willing, _relishing_ the idea of shooting her brother.

"Alex, please don't shoot my brother" she begged suddenly, gaining a vital inch so that she could have leapt forward and threw his aim off for the precious moment needed. Could she do it, would she expose Alex to the danger Burke presented with his pistol lying beside him that she couldn't mention.

A dull thud pounded in her chest as Burke smirked around at Alex, "You win, just give me a moment to get up." Burke took a longer than necessary hand to the floor, knee propped, then rising awkwardly as if working out a stiffness-

Joaquin ducked wildly to the floor in a swift drop towards Burke's pistol and Alex's gun trailed his movement at what could have been a clear kill, but Elsa leapt forward and caught his wrist dragging it upwards in a surge of lithe strength.

Alex attempted to wrestle her off but recovered no further, Joaquin's snap shot perforating her friend-enemies shoulder; whipping his left side back the way of the _shock waves_ that Gunney had educated her about. If it was his shoulder then the bone would splinter and he would stagger as horribly as he did while falling from her grasp, but he'd be on the floor rather than retreating dumbly if it had been near his heart.

That's what she had to think, a horrible thought that sent her back against the wall numbly as Joaquin dry fired his pistol a trio of times before realising the pistol of Burke's concealment was dry, "Good shot my boy, I think you may have killed him" Burke complimented to Joaquin's sudden ease, relaxing on the floor suddenly as outside they could hear Alex's frantic attempts on a doorway down the hallway.

Elsa turned and leapt towards the man in a sudden frenzy that he couldn't evade; feeling the snap of his nose under the cuff of her palm that snapped his head back for a moment in a stream of anger that she couldn't control.

She only felt the room around her as she was lifted clean off Burke and thrown free onto the floor, aware only a moment later that Joaquin was holding Burke back from attempting to get to her with blood streaming down his face.

"You keep that little bitch in front of you" Burke warned after struggling against Joaquin and finally shoving away in a rage, turning panicked as the snap of a doorframe came from where Alex was still alive. _Still alive and kicking _she thought of an old prayer, _lord, praised for your mercy upon us-me_.

"I'll take the whore. Now get in front of me" Burke crudely grabbed Ramona and kept her in an awkward grip that would protect him if he backed to the elevator, _bloody coward_ "Come on Elsa, we need to get out of here" Joaquin persisted, appalling Elsa to her very core.

Aware that she was as bad as him now, who else would have watched him batter the woman now looking so weak and pathetic in the arms of the cruellest creature she'd ever met, who would go along with it any further?

Elsa stopped at the door when she caught sight of the blood trail that swept around to her blindside on her left, away from the lift and the perfect occasion for Alex to execute her on her exit before Burke was even in a wisp of danger.

"I won't go out there" Elsa stopped and turned her accusatory glare at Burke, slapped off Joaquin's hand and twisted away from the pair of them, "You go first" she told Burke, aware that he was so pathetic, holding a barely conscious woman in his arms for protection against a wounded boy.

Joaquin was angry too, holding Burke's pistol that had been loaded with only one bullet in a ruse to of put a _wounded kid_, "Let's go" Burke ordered Joaquin out who agreed like a trained lap dog would, Elsa's stomach rolled but she still kept close, aware she was the only thing that could stop Alex murdering Joaquin.

She didn't know how far she would go to save him, but she knew it would have stopped with Burke's death.

If Alex popped around the corner where his seeping blood trail led then he could kill Burke and have done with it finally.

"I'll leave you the corpse" Burke shouted as he neared the lift, but Elsa recognised the light drifting upwards before he did, only turning with his bloodied snake eyes as the bell chimed.

It was she didn't know how many pounds of heavy metal plating; ceramic joint guards and intervening Kevlar fibre-weave that appeared as the doors receded, a military grade laser rifle in hand slung almost carelessly over the shoulder in a careless gesture of superiority.

Burke recognised the superiority in an instant, slipping under the figure that stalked forward confused for a single moment, unable to stop the roughly dressed Tenpenny resident as he cleared into the lift that the armoured giant had exited enough to allow it.

"What the-" The door closed behind the soldier and began ascending to whatever escape route Burke had in mind, before he turned rifle now levelled on Elsa and Joaquin, both of them rooted to the spot and wide eyed.

"Where's the kid?" the grim visage asked with its weapon awaiting the wrong answer, but mercifully at least for now, it's question was answered in the only way to be satisfied.

"I'm here Kodiak" Alex answered weakly from the far end of the hallway, appearing to them as a staggering mess of blood hidden mostly by a torn up and hastily woven shirt come pressure application. He felt like he had lost every drop of life from his emaciated enough frame, the room he left confirmed it; covered in slick crimson as he'd taken refuge behind the bed, panicking frantically to stop his wound while keeping his pistol nearby, a poor tactic in a frantic rush.

"Alex…" Elsa started even as her hands could around his throat a moment ago-might as well have been for what she'd done. "Don't! Don't you dare!" he snarled as best as he was able, closing the distance with his pistol half raised in the relative steadiness of his right hand, feeling like the last time he'd given blood for the stores in the vault and found he was temporarily anaemic.

Amata had given blood that day as well, after they'd sat in his dad's waiting room and played a game of chance for the precious non-replicated biscuits…

"You look like shit kid, what happened" Kodiak asked weapon still half asking for response against his two _enemies_, aware probably in his laziness that neither of them could have posed a threat even if they had a AER9 rifle themselves.

"I've done myself a mischief" Alex managed the wry response even as he felt like one touch from death, attempting to marshal himself through all the tough talk Gunney had instilled into him after so many long nights and days in the merchant trails.

'Nothing tastes better than a two hundred year old beer after being shot at by some prick, knowing they just pissed you off but didn't hit the sweet spot. Taste the victory in every breath kid' was one of the man's favourite maxims, as close to a career soldier as you'd find in the wastelands.

"The pride and the bore are holding downstairs" Kodiak informed him, very proud for the first and meaning Atermis for the last, "These pricks had an honest to god enclave captain in their _fashion salon_ trying to woo some back biter, we're getting out of here while we have the advantage."

Alex noticed Kodiak's visor turn to the pair between them even subtly before he asked the critical question, "These two, what's the verdict?" A question asked by a man in Alex's opinion fairly moral and committed to the Lyon doctrine, but he could guess the cold thoughts hiding behind the almost malevolent aspect of the brotherhood.

Alex thought he would have visibly shook with anger if his body could have thought of anything but fading strength, "Pick up Ramona both of you" he said stonily, rather than acting on any dangerous thoughts circling his teetering mind, "If she dies, you die." He made that a promise to himself rather than the virus that stood before him.

Elsa obliged first, not meeting his eye or looking at him at all, instead dumbly looking picking up Ramona up with Joaquin's reluctant help. She at least had the sense to look ashamed, she should have been horrified, did he care that under her hazy olive gaze tears began to form?

"Get moving" his voice hard still against his weakness said no, inside he cursed his own self for the fragile nature in which he was raised.

'Always do more good than harm' his father had intoned to him, but what harm could he have done in that hole in the ground?

"We'll go all together but it'll be a squeeze" Kodiak stepped first into the left and stacked his weapon under his arm, "Alex first. You two are the grinder meat." Alex stepped in behind, Elsa and Joaquin squashed in nervously with Ramona between them.

The smell was horrific, the ride tense and appalling even in the usual condition most of them found themselves in, Alex most of all. He could still remember the sterile cleanliness of the vaults, only a hint of sweat permitting the lowest and dankest levels of the facility, opposed now in his memory by the sudden sweltering heat, blood and other fluids that congealed together into a horrible stench.

"The security team here was suppressed in the lounge area, the sentinel is holding easy at the boutique" Kodiak said in the assured tone that came along with being an elite warrior, "Ha-a bloody boutique, these people are fools."

The people were nowhere to be seen as the lift opened, probably all afraid and holding each other in their private rooms as Kodiak bustled forward, "I've got the kid sentinel" Kodiak offered out to the response of a scattergun across his field of attack, only for his weapon discharge to settle accounts towards the lounge in a casual burst.

"Kodiak, we're at your left rear" a voice; maybe Glade's announced in the shattered room, Alex peered over the side and saw the destruction was complete, Tenpenny Tower wasn't safe from the reality of the wasteland any longer.

Swaying slightly Alex felt a hand grab him at the flank of his black fatigues, Kodiak had began to descend the stairs to keep whatever remnant of Gustavo's force remained, "Get your hands off me" he hissed at her, unable to remove it unless he tucked his pistol in what scant clothing he had covering his modesty.

"You'll fall over" she replied not convincingly, sounding unnervingly like he had another lifetime ago; when James had found him under a running shower with an empty scotch bottle beside, _I really didn't mean to open your best bottle._

It hadn't fooled James and this didn't fool him, but all the same he protested but didn't pull her hand away, hated the fact that he wished her other hand would encircle him, she'd be protecting him like she always had and he could do the same for her.

Gustavo the hard faced mercenary chief of Tenpenny Tower finally opted for diplomacy it seemed, "Look, we can't take anymore of this!" he almost screamed in sheer panic, Alex saw two bullet riddled power suits standing erect and geared in the direction of the voice, "You surrender?" the Sentinel asked, professional and clipped.

"I'll not surrender this tower to anyone" Gustavo replied no less stressed, "But I know when I can't put someone down easily. My men have loaded their weapons up with armour piercing shells and rounds, this can get very ugly if we need it too" That didn't sound anyway convincing to any of the brotherhood Alex could tell as Kodiak _humhped _"You leave and we'll not catch you on the way past."

Alex had 'met' the man on his arrival to the tower, not seeming to care for anything Burke had planned for him, he was a man simply put-doing his job.

"Okay, you have yourself a deal" the sentinel replied easily, not aware of how much grief surrounded Tenpenny Tower and its leaders or perhaps simply not caring enough.

Kodiak shrugged in response and turned up to peer at the trio at the tip of the elevator, "Alex, you two, get down here." Feeling stronger suddenly, Alex managed the stairs with his weapon cautiously drawn, stopping and turning it on a figure he knew none of the brotherhood could see.

"Easy smoothskin" the raspy voice behind the auto scattergun offered, making Alex's arm stop rising as Joaquin scrunched up his face in disgust, "Zombie" he hissed in his own smoky tone, causing Alex to curse him quiet.

"We okay over there kid" Kodiak turned and immediately levelled his weapon at the ghoul, "Problem?" he asked confidently, not worried that the scattergun that was turned on him suddenly.

"I'm not here to fight your brotherhood" the ghoul said defensively, watching Alex attempt to right himself, not being able to help the draining feel beginning to course through him. The pride marched together from their place of defence; around the tattered stairwell and into the main space of the torn up tower, Alex noticed they stepped around the bodies rather than over them as he had noted with the super mutants.

"I told you not to follow us" Artemis said while holding a suspiciously familiarly dressed man in dark kaki's and dress shirt, listing to the side as blood pulsed down his face from his bloody temple, the ghoul grunted in response.

"You needed a way into the tower and I obliged" the ghoul responded with defiance in his grave tones, aware that he was outnumbered save for the _growling _Alex could hear just beyond the dank corridor behind…

"What?! is that you Phillips" Gustavo suddenly shouted still unseen, clearly enraged "You can't let that skin sucking prick in here. You've killed all my men." The sentinel was unmoved, "You shouldn't be taking in enemies of the brotherhood then" she dismissed him.

"I have no quarrel with your brotherhood" the ghoul Phillips reinforced, but even as Alex was slightly nudged towards the door his voice stayed for those ominous sounds.

"No, I'm not leaving" Joaquin said suddenly pulling away from his sister and levelling a stern gaze on the paladins and knights, "You can take him if you want but I stay with Gustavo. These ghouls will slaughter everyone in this tower"

"How can you be sure?" Alex asked while keeping his eyes on the ghoul, joined suddenly by another craggy face who was still like Phillips, aware and unferal.

"Look, those bastards have shot and killed travellers who go south, they hate anyone who isn't a ghoul-I swear it!" Gustavo protested rather than Joaquin, sounding so panicked now Alex was unable to discredit the man, "I'll give you the god damned caps of the security pension, just don't let that crazy bastard in here."

"This isn't our prob- Artemis started; having to turn suddenly as Joaquin shoved Alex aside to face the knight, "You'll kill every person in this tower, you people are meant to be helping the wasteland!"

"Back off scum" Artemis warned as Elsa went forward herself to calm Joaquin, leaving Alex to face the suddenly ever more dangerous looking ghoul, who began unsettling his jaw in motion of ill-patience if not anger.

Kodiak landed forward to rip Joaquin away roughly but Alex's gaze remained on the ghoul; steely with a murderous glint under his white soaked eyes, "What do you want here?" he asked over the commotion suddenly very aware of the ghoul's look-very _murderous_.

As if idle he responded "A fair share of the tower" very reasonable Alex reckoned…save for that shrill echo behind him.

"And the ferals you have behind you. I suppose they were coming along for what, rest and relaxation?" His mind clicked a moment too late, maybe the brotherhood hadn't been paying enough attention to notice or their hearing had been impaired in the fighting, whatever the case Mr Phillips smile vanished as soon as Alex's words hit home.

His pistol came up in reflex and slugged the wall orifice around Phillips impotently, driving the ghoul back in curses as well as dragging some from the brotherhood as well.

"What the fuck kid!" Dusk who'd been unusually subdued shouted as they could hear the ghoul backpedalling through the maintenance opening he'd originally emerged from, "you got something against the zombies now?" was she feeling exposed with her lack of power armour in her mercenary garb?

"Not enough to call them zombies" Alex replied turning to the faceless faces of the pride and straggler Artemis; even to Elsa and Joaquin in the grip of Kodiak, "The ghoul had ferals waiting behind him to attack the tower, we need to fend them off"

The brotherhood were used to hordes of super mutants; mercenaries and raider bands, enough to make them suitably arrogant and condescending at the thought of the emancipated near dead sub-terrain sewer dwellers assaulting them.

The hoarse cries of an unknown myriad of ghouls gave some concern however, and when it reached a fervour pitch high enough to reverberate through the closeted walls of the tower it sent a shiver through him.

"I've not got enough ammo left in my rifle" Kodiak announced before shouldering his energy weapon, turning and looking aimless for a second before seeing a shotgun lying free near a body of one tower security guard.

The screams of the ferals announced their assault; Kodiak shoved Joaquin behind him, handled Elsa who held Ramona before grabbing Alex gentler if only slightly, "Get your weapons ready" the sentinel beside ordered quietly, Alex noted all of the brotherhood released the clasp that held their elongated last resort knives, more the length of a classic short sword really.

"Stay behind me all of you" Kodiak ordered moments before their line was struck, "Get out here and fight for your tower!" the Sentinel ordered Gustavo, who true enough appeared with just a trio of weary men in behind.

An unforgettable wave of rotted flesh and malice hit them a moment later in the wrecked home of the rich and haughty a moment later; tearing apart all the ideas of rivalry between anyone who had a mind remaining.

The surge consisted of _dozens _of feral ghouls in all their madness and ferocity, struggling at their fellows in a dash to pour from the tunnel and receive the disintegration awaiting them. Alex could have only hoped that the brotherhood would have regulated their firing better, but the first half a dozen bodies whistling away looked sweet before the onslaught began.

Gustavo and his men waded in with buckshot and focused ironsights, added too by Kodiak bravely stepping forward to blast away into the ghouls before using his weapon as a makeshift baseball bat, Dusk the claimed sniper used her laser pistol from a 'slight' afar while the Sentinel and Artemis took a flank each.

The loose line lasted perhaps thirty to forty seconds before a ghoul waded out between in midst of his brother corpses, different in the way of having some makeshift device red plastered with a warning look upon it on first sighting, Alex hadn't even had a chance to fire his pistol yet.

Elsa was far enough from the blast to only receive partial whip back as it exploded, knocking her onto her backside with an unexpected _thud_, adding to the feeling criss-crossing her already fragile form.

She wasn't built for the wasteland life as much as she protested; too slight, too caring, too human for the wasteland, she would have thanked Joaquin in her most drawling tone if she wasn't so momentarily overwhelmed in seeing him safe and unharmed.

The moment her farther found out he'd left struck a chord in her mind suddenly; the great beast of _Magdera_ wounded so gravely, enough to make his wife's passing a trifling matter, _'I'd kill and maim and murder just to see my boy home'_ he'd huffed and sobbed in a drink induced stupor so clear in her mind to still make her wince.

Joaquin was beside her scrambling for Alex's pistol which lay away from him, Alex who lay unmoving who had been standing so stubbornly between them unarmed and the brotherhood paladins.

She was frantically over him hoping those few proud yards hadn't cost him his life while Joaquin took aim at whatever remnant of the ghouls remained, so did the suddenly vulnerable looking brotherhood and tower guards who were able to stand.

It was more silver dented steel than sand coloured body armour, the ghouls were numerous enough that the steel soldiers pulled their knives free in their oft hands.

Below her Alex lay in an almost serene silence with his eyes unmolested and shut tightly like he was attempting to shut out the pain, his shoulder didn't pump and she thought he looked strong if only for a moment before she caught sight of his near flesh vacant stomach.

If he died now she'd be haunted forever she realised, more so than she ever had in the time they'd experienced all the trials of the D.C ruins and beyond together, or even when she'd went and betrayed him to get her brother back home when she thought that he'd shun her forever.

She wanted him to open his eyes and have them flutter; look at her and smile, tell her that he wanted her-needed her.

The thought of how much he truly meant to her vanished the moment his eyes did open and he looked alarmed rather than relieved, pained to that same horrible moment where he'd caught a ricochet off a 5mm round in the siege of GNR.

"It's okay" she told him against the battle going around him, Joaquin beside her fumbling at his pants for an additional magazine as the ghouls swarmed again.

He always came alert and fretted when he awakened as she'd seen a hundred nights before, his head caught sight of the melee and he attempted to move only for Elsa's hands to grip his shoulders one more firmly than the other.

"Lay still" she told him to his obvious displeasure, as he tried to rise only to be pulled into a semi-sitting position of bare exposure.

"Let go of me" he hissed futility, as Elsa saw the ghouls tip the balance before the brotherhood surged forward in a wave of laser fire from their pistols and knife thrusts, _neither a man nor a beast can stand a good thrusting motion…a slash on the other hand…_were her grandmothers words to her once upon a time, "Stay still" she ordered back.

The messy torrent peaked and reduced after a last grasping group of ferals were slammed and sliced to pieces, leaving a truly _shattered_ room where there had once been the very lap of luxury in the capital wastelanders-in the entire wasted world maybe.

"Go after that ghoul" The Sentinel said behind her blood swamped visor, to a team that were equally reddish as dull grey, "My hydraulics across my left are broken" the towering brute Kodiak replied.

"My weapons dry" the other female in the group announced, "I only have my pistol left" another told the senior though slighter brotherhood soldier.

"I'll go after him" Gustavo the man who looked to be the only one left standing from the tower guard cut in, cutting away back into where he and his men had originally took cover before returning with a tin box of shotgun shells.

Elsa saw from the newly shelled tin that the rounds had came from the Pitt up north, "So will I" Joaquin announced, standing away from Elsa who couldn't move to stop him while the brotherhood member holding the now terrified looking enclave captain tossed his prisoner into another's arms.

"I'm going with you two" the soldier announced with his laser pistol in hand, "Get ready to move Sentinel, this won't take too long."

To Alex it felt like an eternity, his wound beginning to pulse beyond its former pain as delirium set in around his peripheral vision, clouding his view and lifting him to weightlessness as he felt Elsa set him down for what reason he didn't know.

She left him feeling pathetic; so utterly condemnable in his own mind that he could have tore his own flesh off if he wasn't reduced to a body near that state in those that littered the floor alongside him.

This mission began to rend itself asunder he realised as he felt hands drift along his chest, removing the bandaging he'd tore together. Then he realised a puncture in his arm and shoulder releasing a numbing, almost euphoric feeling, from an algesic no doubt-something confirmed by the appearance of Elsa's short blonde locks drifting into his view.

Could the enclave really have allowed one of their captains alone in the middle of the wasteland without back-up from one of their lightening quick aircraft? Not a chance he knew, they were-to guess Kodiak, lifting him just to die on the outside of the tower rather than inside.

The thrown up dust; panicked weapon fire or frantic running didn't occur at his first instant of reaching the blinding, almost inescapable sun of the capital wasteland dunes however, and neither did it after what was a period of perhaps minutes, hours or days for all the knowledge his lapsed vision allowed.

Abruptly he was deposited onto the hard surface of a rock face that gave him a face full of Tenpenny tower at a considerable distance, dotted around with skeletal pre-war outcroppings of civilisation long since abandoned or scaved; highway passes, discount stores, municipal buildings and the like, leaving only the thick Robco facility upright and imposing.

Leaving a distinct impression of a needle embedding itself into his arm, Alex looked up to see Elsa covering over him with a look of concern upon her lightened features, saying words that made no sense in his stupor until the world began to blue back to him in a near instant overflow of the senses.

Coming back to the world of the living meant the dull thud of his left shoulder through to his arm persisting under the now rising heat of the wasteland, adding to the irritation of a rapidly dehydrating throat along with a headache that pulsed behind his eyes.

Summoning strength from the reserve gathered from the now tightly knotted sinew of constituted his wiry frame, Alex rose up with a hand under the arm from Elsa which he could not even dream of getting away from.

"Shit" he muttered, as the day looked to be shaping up as bad as the night before them had been, but with more _threat_. There were no rabid ghouls or even well armed security guards this time, it was worse; blood red, sable black, two upsetting colours painted ominously across the faceless faces and thick plates of T-45d power armour.

The brotherhood outcasts had engulfed their small party close enough to initiate a melee combat through to a duo of armoured figures wielding anti-armour rifles, atop positions to their bearing towards Megaton on a cliff shelf; another on a rocky outcropping to the immediate north.

A trio of the outcast members were in close proximity with two hardened, very well worn looking mister gutsys; a heavy treading sentinel bot some twenty yards in behind, prominent across the small bar which separated Alex and Elsa from the rest of their party. They faced Kodiak; the Sentinel, Artemis, the un-armoured Dusk and Glade, the futilely pompous enclave captain and Joaquin who still had Ramona thrown over his shoulder, the brotherhood members with their inferior R93's mostly trained on their castaway brothers.

"Those weapons won't do much good against this armour" the lead dust and soot soaked soldier told an already aware crowd, Alex knew it well enough himself in the half a dozen conflict he'd seen power armour turned out in, "Put your weapons down, you can't win this fight…Sarah." The casual mention of a personal name did not, if aimed; slacken the Sentinel's focus, she appeared as steady as ever.

"Over my smoking body Casdin" she replied icily, the very personification and embodiment of what her father had remained in the ruins to fight for, "You might have the numbers with your 'brothers in arms' behind you, traitors the lot not counting the rust buckets, but you've given up your advantage by coming getting so close to gloat. Let's see the scavengers in behind get to us when we're throttling you or your tin cans dedicate fire when we're in the melee."

She failed to mention the heavy duty weapons carried by the outcast members, the leader Casdin holding a weapon alien to Alex's eyes but allowing him to know it's severity by the tri-longsighted arc as it's 'muzzle', those other two of his number behind holding the snub nosed tri-beam laser rifles that could melt power armour as well as anything he'd ever seen knowledge off.

"You talk tough, but let's see how you stand up to these" the leftmost outcast soldier spoke up, brandishing her weapon which was held in an arrogant grip, "Natives in whatever shape go down just as nicely."

"Bring it on" Kodiak intoned fiercely, holding up one of the scavenged weapons but looking ready to pull free his huge knife to pick the female members optics out lens by lens.

"You can't win this fight Lyon's" Casdin repeated again more finally, setting a switch on his weapon so that it seemed to engage for whatever damage it was designed to inflict, "Now we want to know what went on in that tower, what you were doing there; who that man is" it was clear as to who he referred to, startling the captain from his look of resignation, "and why _Lyon's pride _is so far out in the wastes." The tension seemed palpable as both the outcast and brother levelled their weapons for what would be a savage exchange at such a close range, "These rock dwellers will die on the second discharge of this caster, your two fellow traitors who're un-armoured will follow. Now put your weapons down."

"I'll see you in the grave Casdin, aim for the traitors eyes" The sentinel raised her weapon and the moment approached finality, Elsa struggled to get towards Joaquin but Alex held her by the strap attached around her waist suddenly knowing she'd die in the crossfire if they weren't summarily executed after.

If his father had been alive to explain what happened next he'd a miracle into the equation, something that always seemed so reaching and mindless from one of the most educated men in the post-apocalyptic world. But when Elsa attempted to throw him off and inadvertently activated his pip-boy broadcast receiver tool, the situation was suddenly saved if only for a moment.

The familiar, conforming voice of Three-Dog blared through the speaker of his pip-boy.

"-eyes and ears tell me the big bad government Big Bad Government has taken over that big machine thingy at the Jefferson Memorial. You heard it here first, my friends -the Enclave is on the scene. I've got reports of flying ships and shock troops in high-tech power armor."

"And, when the Man showed up, a bunch of scientists went running. With them was Rivet City's own Dr. Madison Li, and that crazy kid from Vault 101. They're safe and sound now at the Citadel. Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus! No sign of the kid's father, though. Here's hoping James is okay. Well, boys and girls, what can I say. Looks like President Eden wasn't completely full of shit after all. Me thinks we are screwed."

The leader of the outcast perked up, heard the report with a quirk of his head before asking "Is that a pip-boy you have?" Glade in the midst of the brotherhood with his tense shoulders unlocking turned to give Alex an incredulous stare, "Yes it is" Alex replied timidly considering the situation.

Casdin quite suddenly and un-expectantly held up a hand to ease his soldiers and programmed bots, "Are you a vault dweller? That idiot Three-Dog seems to think so" Alex replaced Elsa in moving forward into the midst while she made for the seeming comfort of her brothers waiting embrace.

Alex ignored the sight and got to within striking distance of the former brotherhood-current brotherhood soldier, "I'm from vault 101. Where nobody ever enters, or leaves." Casdin ignored the additional comment.

"So you can operate that pip-boy?" why was he so interested Alex wondered, "Of course, all vault…people know how to use them" Alex was now as perplexed as everyone in his party seemed, weapons still aloft but behind surely questioning stares.

If the man could have appeared more relieved he did not know, but instead Alex switched off his radio as a song bleated from his speaker and Casdin told him, not asked "Then you're definitely coming with us, we've been looking for someone like you." Alex's immediate reaction was surprise, why where they looking for vault dwellers, what was the significance of the pip-boy?

Did any of that matter that, with the idea apparent Casdin seemed to pull his focus from subduing the Sentinel and her men-and woman.

Sacrifice in Alex's family seemed to be a genetic trait that none of them could prevent or get away from Elsa realised from Joaquin's worried arms as she saw Alex size up the opportunities available to him, "You need me to come with you? fine. But if you're expecting me to come along willingly and help you while you gun down my friends you're sadly mistaken. Let the Sentinel go her way with her soldiers and we have a deal."

Suddenly the enclave captain spoke up "Sir, I'd like to extend an opportunity of a lifetime to you" he began before the knight beside him attempted to shut him up with a butt stock to the guts, only for the outcast weapons came up again in defence.

"Let him speak" Casdin ordered and glade with visible disgust complied as the Sentinel woman waved him off.

"If you take me with you then I can discuss terms with you, in relation to a non-aggression pact between your organisation and mine" the captain offered suddenly invigorated under his dishevelled features, "We have much in common I'm sure that we can discuss." It was enough for the man that made all the brotherhood she'd met direct their anger towards rather than her brother or herself-scum as they were.

The moment seemed too long before Alex turned on the Sentinel, "Let him go Sentinel, get your men and women back to the citadel. You've gutted enough super mutants and ghouls; crooked security guards, even managed to bust up Tenpenny Towers." His easy grin appeared in a small flash of memory towards the younger man she'd left in her headless escape from the Jefferson memorial, and she realised she'd never could expect to see that person again, leaving such a depth of guilt and remorse in her she near choked up.

"This isn't done Casdin" the Sentinel intoned tiredly and finally to her opponent, before looking at Alex behind a faceless mask which Elsa expected to be as grave as Glade the knight appeared.

"We'll not forget about you 101" she told Alex fiercely, taking a step forward to place a fibre weave grasp onto his stronger arm, "thank you, from all of us"

"I'll see you again kid" the largest and suddenly human brotherhood member spoke definitively from the far side of their rank, "You better believe it Kodiak, take care of our friends, and stuff it to those enclave pricks."

That was it, suddenly the enclave captain was shuffling forward into the outcast ranks while Alex shared a few words with the brotherhood, Elsa moving through them as he turned away quickly without looking over her to turn off with the outcast.

"Alex, Alex!" she started after him with intent to get something from him, any form of closure she could gleam from under his anger if not cold indifference.

"What?" he asked quietly while turning back to her again, bloody and battered; bruised and swollen across his chest and face, a wastelander from the golden glint in his eyes to the confrontation trapped across his frame.

He isn't Alex from vault 101 anymore, not your friend, and he doesn't even want to be your enemy Elsa realised, unable to say anything to him under his painful neutrality.

It shocked her to feel a sudden anger at him, that he could be so cool and composed when she was rolling with sickness brought on by her own actions. Burke had said to her once, against all thought she had known then; that Alex was the same mould as all vault dwellers were when considering wastelanders.

_We aren't real people to see them, just radroaches hiding under false skin. None of them, not even the kid from 101 will ever really care about you or anything. _

Maybe the bastard was right in one thing, maybe she was just a distraction to him, and if she hadn't been, didn't she prove she was just as worthless as all those other wastelanders that she'd seen Alex shrug off.

"Good luck" was all she said, watching him nod slightly before turning off into the robo and heavy laden foot tracks of the outcasts.

She turned to see that the brotherhood had left as well, leaving Joaquin and her alone in the wasteland without a weapon or destination except home.

"Let's go home Joaquin" she said after a heavy moment of silence between them, siblings reunited.

He turned his gaze almost longingly on the tower they'd just left, she remembered Gustavo kicking him out the door as he pleaded with the man to let him stay and explain things to Mr Burke.

"No, not yet" he started towards the northern passage of free ground, seeming suddenly positive again, "I've got a better idea, I stashed a weapon and some supplies nearby in case anything every happened in the tower." Elsa suddenly picked up behind him as a wild wind began to pick up around them.

"Then we return home?" she asked to his back.

"No, then we go to Fort Bnnister. I've got some money to collect from Talon company" he answered, "Then we go home, I promise little sister."


End file.
